Hey Mate! Sorry I think I was a bit harsh saying he doesn't have loyalty to Nuno, they are obviously close.
But the Owners of the club have money in Mendes company isnt that right? So I know where they will ultimately be filtered through too!
While you're here, opinion on Nuno? I genuinely cant slag him or get excited about him, very meh to me.
No worries & yes, our owners have a stake in Mendes' agency, Gestifute. With Mendes you get two sides of the deals though, there's times where you get players on the cheap like Neves (£15m), Jota (£12m), Boly (£10m), Moutinho (£5m), Neto (£15m) and then others where you overpay. For example, no one is denying the fact we overpaid for Fabio Silva (£35m), he's only 18 and is not a £35m player by any means, but he has a lot of potential which could see him be worth well over that in the coming years, it's a gamble for sure, but one our board has willingly taken. We paid that large fee as Porto were having financial troubles, so again, getting players from Mendes is very swings and roundabouts in that sense.
Onto Nuno
Overall, I think Nuno is a great coach, certainly the best I've seen at Wolves in my lifetime. I also think he's a good coach for a team like yourselves or us that has ambitions to get European football, however, I won't sit here and make out he's perfect, he has his faults too.
He came to us with a subpar reputation from fans of his previous two clubs, Valencia & Porto. Valencia fans referred to him as a Mendes puppet, and Porto fans said he was a bottle job that's too pragmatic to win a title. Not exactly the most glowing reports for a team that was looking to get out of the championship. Many fans were sceptical to begin with, but we quickly realised he wasn't like any other run-of-the-mill manager we've had in the past. He came with fresh ideas, his own backroom staff, and was able to implement his plans onto our squad immediately. There was no settling-in period and within the first few preseason games, we looked the real deal. During his first preseason, he allowed ZERO interviews to the media and didn't let anyone watch them train. He created a real siege mentality of us vs. the world, very Mourinho-esque which is something you'd expect from his protege. The atmosphere he created in the squad off the back of this and the ideas he put forward paid dividends, the first 3 years of his tenure were amazing. We played great football, were extremely dangerous on the break, and I'll be honest when I say that I never felt like we were completely out of a game. Nuno is the main reason it really felt like we were almost knocking on the door of the big boys in those first two seasons back in the Prem. This last year, on the other hand, not so much.
We went into the season off the back of an extensive campaign, playing well over 50 games due to being in Europe, and then having almost no break and only 3 days of preseason before our first league match we were already back on it again. The squad has looked knackered, and losing key players like Jota and Doherty, big injuries to Raul, Neto (more recently), and then two of our best defenders in Boly (out for 17 games last season) and Jonny (out pretty much all season with an ACL injury), just added more fuel to the fire. The football grew turgid and the game plan just seemed to be reliant on Adama to produce an individual moment of brilliance.
The negatives with Nuno is that he can be stubborn, he opted for a small squad, which worked at first, but then arguably was eventually his undoing as well with all the injuries we had last season. He would set out very safety first a lot of the time, you only have to look at our abysmal record of scoring in the first half the last year or so to see that. His use of younger players was somewhat inconsistent for me, some of our younger players were struggling to get a look in this year despite senior players performing poorly on a regular basis, and in the case of players such as Vitinha, when he did get limited game time, he was often played out of position. As another Wolves poster mentioned, while Nuno had the final say on transfers, he often opted for Mendes clients over recommendations from our scouts. He picked out Podence over Dani Olmo from Salzburg at the time and was adamant about bringing in Semedo as his number one choice to replace Doherty. He is a very good coach though, and I do believe he has the ability to learn from his mistakes, for example, he had already given interviews stating how his small squad mantra would need change as it clearly doesn't work over a long period of time dealing with injuries etc.
For me, Nuno had more than enough credit in the bank to come back refreshed next season and give it another go, and I feel like I'm speaking for the vast majority of Wolves fans when I say we felt that a proper preseason with new additions, Raul returning from injury, fans back in the stadium, etc. and it would've been fine again. Obviously, our owners saw things differently, but I wouldn't let that put you off him.
I think the rationale behind the sacking of Nuno and the appointment of Lage is a calculated one by our owners, it's very much a risk, but I feel like he has been lined up as Nuno's eventual successor for a while now. There were rumours circulating in Portugal when Chelsea & Arsenal were sniffing around Nuno a year or so ago that we were willing to break Lage's €20m release clause to prise him away from Benfica. More recently, according to The Athletic, there had been growing tensions with our owners and Nuno this season. They apparently wanted to sack him after our defeat to West Brom in January but thought he was more than capable of keeping us up, so decided to give him the rest of the season. In the meantime, Lage's name had cropped up again a few months ago linking him to the Wolves job if Nuno left this summer. Lage had a very good record of integrating youth in his time at Benfica, facilitating the breakout seasons for players like Joao Felix, Ruben Dias, Florentino Luis, Ferro etc. and I feel like one of the reasons he's been brought in is to hopefully do similar and, long term, get the best out of players like Neto, Fabio Silva, Vitinha, Ait-Nouri, Hoever while playing a more attractive style of football than Nuno did. This is of course a huge risk and could see us fighting for Europe next season or right down the other end of the table, no one really knows.
When it comes to Everton, just looking at your squad, and I honestly have to say, the players you have feel very Nuno'y if that makes sense? If he were to set you guys up similar to how he did with us in his first few years, I feel that you already have a lot of the pieces there already. A 3-5-2 With Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison up top looks like it could be very reminiscent of the Jimenez & Jota partnership we had in our first prem season that saw us play some of our best football. Digne could easily play wingback in the Barry Douglas role we had in the championship, and I could certainly see Coleman play the same role that Doherty fulfilled with us also. Your centre-back options are stronger than ours, I think Boly is the only one from us that would get in your team. Your midfield options are okay and on paper look pretty well suited to the way Nuno would set out his teams, but I feel you'd need an upgrade here or there? What would worry me if I was an Everton fan is what looks to be the lack of pace in your side. I struggle to see how players like James would fit into a Nuno team, and feel like if he was to set up with a 3-4-3 you would certainly need a winger. Those are just my views looking from the outside in though.
Overall, while Nuno might not sound like the most inspiring appointment for you guys, I feel like he would be a good one. I could certainly see you getting at least top 8, probably even a European spot if you get him, and potentially building from there. I think one of the benefits of Nuno going to a club like Everton is that you have a much larger budget than us, this summer it seems like we'll have to be selling one of Adama/Neves to raise funds, while also likely losing players such as Patricio and Moutinho who are our top earners and going into the last year of their contracts now.
