There is a good chance Ruben Neves made his final appearance for Wolves today.
The 2022/23 season has now ended after clubs played their final Premier League games today.
Wanderers were down at the Emirates playing Arsenal, and fell to a shocking 5-0 defeat.
Results elsewhere mean the club have finished in 13th place, which many Wolves fans will take given the state of things in late 2022.
Julen Lopetegui has guided Wanderers to safety, overseeing a real change at Molineux both on and off the pitch.
His appointment saved the club from dropping into the Championship, and most fans are praying he sticks around.
That’s because there have been claims this week about the club having concerns over FFP.
The feeling right now is that the Spaniard will stay. But he has continually stressed the need for investment in order to get the squad where it needs to be ahead of 2023/24.
That squad likely will not include Neves, who has long been linked with an exit from Molineux.
The club have slapped a £45 million asking price on him, and are hopeful a club will be willing to pay it. They don’t want to be losing him for free in the summer of 2024.
Johnny Phillips penned an interesting column in the Express & Star ahead of Wolves’ final game with Arsenal.
In it, he mentions Neves as being one of three Wolves players who could bring in much needed revenue this summer. The other two being Matheus Nunes and Nelson Semedo.
He states that Neves will ‘surely’ be leaving. That’s because last summer, the player had actually moved his belongings out of his house in Wolverhampton, he was that sure he was departing.
He was poised to join Barcelona, but Phillips says the move fell through.
Neves, he adds, never got round to putting everything back.
There is surely no way Ruben Neves stays at Wolves this time
Phillips is well connected at Wolves and it’s interesting to hear that a move to Barca was actually on for Neves but it fell through.
It is unclear why that was, or what Barcelona were going to pay Wolves.
But in the end, it was a good thing Neves did stay at Wolves for the 2022/23 season.
Had he left, Wolves might not have been playing Premier League football next term.
He seriously stepped up for Wanderers, and was regularly the standout player when the team was struggling as a collective early in the season.
Neves will surely not be staying for one final season. With FFP concerns very real, he’s a saleable asset. And there is an acceptance from everyone that Neves stayed far longer than expected at Molineux, and showed fantastic loyalty.