Wolves technical director Scott Sellars has spoken about the club’s decision to loan out Adama Traore to Barcelona.
Wanderers raised eyebrows in January when they agreed to send the Spaniard to the Nou Camp on only a temporary basis.
An option to buy clause was negotiated. It is thought to be worth around £29 million.
But recently, there have been claims that Barcelona won’t be triggering it.
There have been reports they could look to try and use Francisco Trincao or Riqui Puig in a swap deal.
But it seems Barca spending £29 million on Traore is unlikely.
People were concerned about the deal when it was struck, given Barca’s well documented financial issues.
But Wolves still went ahead and sanctioned it. And now, Sellars has explained the reasons the club took such a decision.
He said (Express & Star): “Adama didn’t want to sign a contract at Wolves, so it was the right deal for all parties. A good deal is a deal that is good for the club, good for the player and his agent and for the club he is going to.
“There’s no obligation but there’s an option to buy. If Barcelona can struggle financially then that situation is across football at the moment. Not a lot of people have a lot of money at the moment. So that type of deal is happening a lot more.
“Over the next two or three years, with crowds back and things calm down, there may be more obligations to buy.
“But we felt it was a great opportunity for Adama to play for Barcelona and be successful and promote himself.”
Sellars goes on to praise Traore for getting on with the job at Molineux despite not wanting to sign a new deal.
He describes him as ‘different class as a human being, well respected and well liked.”
Wolves were seemingly happy to take a gamble on Traore
From these comments, it sounds like Wolves officials knew there could be a chance of Barca not triggering the £29 million option. But they were still happy to agree the deal.
Perhaps they were willing to gamble that Traore would perform really well, so that his value wouldn’t drop too much.
He’s made a very good start. So hopefully other teams will be in for him this summer if Barca are not.
There could be a potential issue though in that Traore was absolutely delighted to return to his former club in January, and would probably want to stay there.
That could make it difficult for Wolves to negotiate with other clubs.