Report shares Lage's stance on Patricio and complications with Johnstone bid

Rui Patricio’s future has been one of the main themes of Wolves’ summer transfer window so far.

Last week, it was reported that the Portugal goalkeeper was all set to walk away from Molineux to join Roma.

This week, the latest is that Roma have apparently walked away from the deal.

For their part, the Athletic report that Bruno Lage has made it clear he wants Patricio to stay.

That means he wants him to shelve plans to leave. The Roma deal is off for now, and Lage wants it to be off for good as well.

He wants his number one goalkeeper to stay, but the report does also outline a couple of potential replacements Wolves had lined up.

One of them was Sam Johnstone. Despite playing for Wolves’ bitter rivals West Brom, the report claims the Baggies would be willing sellers.

But the fact that they don’t have a manager or a sporting director has meant communication out of the Hawthorns is very slow.

Patricio has been a great servant for Wolves, underlined by former Old Gold stopper Carl Ikeme calling him ‘fantastic’ in February.

Yes, there’s a small weakness at the near post but he’s added his international experience and calm to the backline.

Getting a new goalkeeper can imbalance a backline and it isn’t ideal for a new manager to have to oversee such a chance in his maiden season.

So it’s easy to understand why Lage wants Patricio to stay, especially given the potential issues with regards getting Johnstone through the door.

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