SPEED, STRENGTH AND NOW END PRODUCT... AWESOME ADAMA IS FLYING

Traore has been transformed by Nuno and he’s still only 23!

HANDS UP if you remember former Swansea and Coventry player John Williams, or ‘The Flying Postman’ as he was better known.

In 1992, there was a quest to find England’s fastest footballer over 100metres. It was called the Rumbelows Sprint Challenge, hosted by John McCririck (you can find grainy footage of all this on YouTube).

The eight runners who made it to the final lined up by the side of the Wembley pitch in full kit and boots — and Williams, then of Swansea, won in 11.49sec.

If such a race took place today, you would not bet against Adama Traore flying over that finish line in first place. Williams was lightning quick and so is Traore, with 20 Premier League players having been booked for fouling him this season.

For a while, we thought Traore was all pace and no end product, someone who would rank high in the

FIFA 20 speed charts but low when it came to the actual shooting.

He had the equipment but didn’t seem sure what to do with it. There is a saying about these types of players in football. If you saw one sprinting with the ball on the pitch, you would say they’d better ‘open the gates’ at the other end, otherwise he’d run straight into them.

That was Traore, but it is not him now. He is a different player these days, and Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo deserves great credit for this transformation.

Traore knows now what to do when he gets into good positions, and that was the bedrock of Wolves’ 3-2 comeback win at Southampton on Saturday. Their first goal saw Traore show Jan Bednarek why you should never dive in against him, before he set up Pedro Neto to score.

Then Wolves’ third goal saw him charge behind the Saints back line before picking out Raul Jimenez for the winner. Job done, three points, Liverpool next on Thursday.

Traore is an amazing weapon for a side. With him as an outlet, you can turn defence into attack with one long ball because you know he is capable of catching it.

He frightens the life out of opponents — would you want to be given the job of marking him? — and has the power to match his speed.

Kids out there love to watch him fly and he is becoming a Premier League icon. Amid all this, it is important to remember Traore only turns 24 next week, too.

He was 17 when he made his Barcelona first-team debut, coming off the bench to replace Neymar in a 4-0 win over Granada. He was a raw talent then, a teenager in need of a good coach who could put his weaponry to proper use.

He has got that from Nuno now.