Pedro Neto’s sale this summer was something many Wolves fans expected.
The Portugal international had been at the club for five years, and there was a feeling going into this transfer window that it was Neto’s time.
He may well have departed earlier.
But the player struggled with injuries over the years which potentially did prevent him from moving on sooner.
A couple of weeks ago, Wolves reached an agreement with Chelsea for Neto’s transfer, and the sale will eventually be the biggest in the club’s history. It is to reach £54 million with add-ons, which will just eclipse the £53 million received from Manchester City for Matheus Nunes.
Neto will be missed by Wolves. He was a top player, who had the ability to do special things on the pitch and win games on his own.
Neto will make his return to Molineux this weekend as Wolves host Chelsea in the Premier League – and goalkeeper Tom King has made quite the claim about his former teammate.
Wolves goalkeeper Tom King says Pedro Neto is the best player technically he’s ever seen
Neto will surely get a good reception this weekend when Chelsea come to Molineux.
The 24-year-old left in a good manner after five years of service, and it was clear until the end that Neto genuinely loved Wolves.
Matt Hobbs claimed the player was in tears at the training ground when he was leaving, and the star put out a heartfelt message on Instagram at the time.
Tom King appeared on The Official Wolves Podcast following last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.
There was some talk about Neto ahead of the reunion this weekend, and King spoke about his former teammate – and it is very clear how highly he rates him having trained with him.
He said: “Technically, completely above anything I’ve ever seen.
“To see Neto over an extended period, technically, the most gifted player I think I’ve ever come across in my career.
“Some of the things I saw him do. Sometimes we’d be doing finishing drills and there’d be no point me stood in there because he’d just be bypassing me like it was easy for him. Most of the time it was too easy for him.”
King went on to say that he is ‘super excited’ to see how Neto fares for Chelsea.
Neto’s quality will be so hard to replace
- READ MORE: Jamie Carragher lavishes major praise on Pedro Neto after watching him over the years at Wolves
Neto’s exit could really sting this season for Wolves.
While the team has shown it can still do well without him, he was a huge game-changer and someone who could provide magic moments.
Matheus Cunha – who is arguably Wolves’ new best player after Neto’s exit – is perhaps the only other player capable of that now in the Wolves squad.
But Neto’s exit was probably always on the cards in this window and Wolves have done decent business getting £54 million, for a player who did have a patch injury record.
Hopefully, new signing Rodrigo Gomes will turn out to be a worthy successor to Neto.