Wolves are now all but certain to miss out on Juanlu Sanchez, with Napoli poised to announce the player’s transfer.
Sanchez was seen as a potential replacement for Nelson Semedo by Wolves and there had been some strong links in recent days.
But yesterday, it was reported by Matteo Moretto that Sanchez to Napoli was on the verge of happening.
It is now expected that Napoli will announce Sanchez as a new signing soon, and it is a second setback in the space of just a few weeks for Wolves regarding a new right wing-back.
Wolves had been poised to sign Marc Pubill from Almeria, but were beaten to the punch by Atletico Madrid.
While Wolves’ move for Sanchez wasn’t quite as advanced as that, it was still fairly close.
How far Wolves actually got in their pursuit of Juanlu Sanchez
Fans are now starting to get anxious with the new starting in less than two weeks.
Semedo is a big loss, and there are question marks over Ki-Jana Hoever to succeed the Portuguese.
Hoever said that he is ready to play for Wolves, but his last couple of pre-season outings have not been too inspiring.
It’s frustrating that Wolves have been unable to land Sanchez, and journalist Matteo Moretto provided some more details of the situation yesterday.
He said: “Wolves had pushed hard for Sanchez in recent days, reaching an agreement with Sevilla on the basis of €17/18 million.
“The player made the move, spoke to Wolves, negotiated, tried to understand if the conditions were right for a possible move to the Premier League.
“But he never gave the final ‘Yes’. He never gave the definitive ‘OK’ to the transfer because he was receiving signals from Napoli, that the deal with Napoli had not definitively fallen through.
“This is why Sanchez showed up at Sevilla’s headquarters and reiterated this concept: I want to go to Naples.”
So interest, an agreement in principle, and some slight interest from Sanchez, but crucially, never a full commitment from the player, with Wolves now needing to look at more alternatives.
What Napoli have offered Sevilla for Juanlu Sanchez
At the moment, there actually still isn’t an agreement between Napoli and Sevilla, but it’s very close.
Currently, Napoli are offering just under £15 million without bonuses. From the way Moretto was speaking, it seems only a matter of time before the gap is bridged.
Unfortunately for Wolves, the fact of the matter is that Sanchez always had Napoli as his preferred choice. A move to Molineux was considered by Sanchez, but it seems Napoli remained in the back of his mind.
Seemingly he didn’t want to fully commit to Wolves in case Napoli came and stepped up their pursuit of him, and it appears that has been the case.
But as with Pubill, perhaps a positive of the situation is that Wolves have avoided signing a player who did not actually have Molineux at the top of his list.