Daily Mirror

Nuno: I’ll be special

- BY JAMES NURSEY

NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO has promised to bring some of Jose Mourinho’s special Portuguese competitiv­eness to Wolves.

The former Porto boss was unveiled at Molineux yesterday on a three-year contract.

Ex-goalkeeper Nuno, 43, played under Mourinho at Porto and said: “In Portugal we have always been people who like to have an adventure. We have very good coaches.

“Our education is good and we are competitiv­e people. As long as you have your own model, you can succeed wherever you are.”

Nuno has already visited the club museum which celebrates Wolves’ glory days from 1950-1970.

He added: “I hope I can help build a new future, I can get inspiratio­n from those years. The players must adapt to our ideas and hard training with intensity. We will build fitness at the same time as we build style of play.”

QUITE what ‘Union’ Jack Hayward would have made of today’s Wolverhamp­ton Wanderers is probably, for a variety of reasons, best left unsaid.

This grand institutio­n, once owned by Hayward is now in the hands of a Chinese conglomera­te.

And it has a recruitmen­t dependence on agent Jorge Mendes that will surely only become stronger after his client Nuno Espirito Santo succeeded Paul Lambert as manager this week.

It remains to be seen what business Wolves will conduct this summer, but no one would bet against most of it going through Mendes.

There is, according to the Football Associatio­n, no conflict of interest in owners Fosun working with Mendes.

Early last year, Mendes sold a stake in his Gestifute agency to Foyo Culture and Entertainm­ent, a Fosun subsidiary.

Fosun bought Wolves last summer. The FA rulebook states that intermedia­ry organisati­ons “shall not have an interest in a club” and that a club “shall not have any interest in the business affairs of an intermedia­ry’s organisati­on”.

As recently as yesterday, Wolves managing director Laurie Dalrymple, with a straight face, insisted there was no formal relationsh­ip between the club and Mendes, saying: “Jorge Mendes is not in charge of recruitmen­t. He can’t be. It is not within the rules.”

No laughing at the back.

The FA looked into the WolvesFosu­n-Mendes links and waved play on. Like they do. Those links were not entirely unwelcome at Molineux.

Previous owner Steve Morgan had become unpopular and the new proprietor­s, with a lot of help from Mendes, promised to bring in some exciting talent. To an extent, they have done that, although it has hardly been reflected in the league standing.

In 2015-16, under Kenny Jackett, they finished 14th with 58 points, while in 2016-17, under first Walter Zenga and then Paul Lambert, they finished 15th with 58 points.

They do have one of the Championsh­ip’s best players in Helder Costa, whose loan deal from Benfica was made permanent in January for a £13million fee. That was good news for his agent, Mendes, and will be better news when he is sold on for a larger fee, which he inevitably will be.

Neither Dalrymple nor Nuno, as he has always been known, would guarantee that Costa will start next season at Wolves.

They can’t because the reality is that Mendes will decide when Costa moves on.

If the new Wolves coach – one of Mendes’ very early clients – is a success, his agent’s involvemen­t will be feted and there is every chance Nuno will be more successful than his recent predecesso­rs. Any manager who can take Valencia to a fourth-place finish in La Liga clearly knows what he is doing.

But the whole Wolves scenario is a snapshot of what is happening in a game awash with money.

Make no mistake, these so-called super-agents want to run your club.

Mendes and Mino Raiola, for example, would probably love a monopoly of comings and goings at Manchester United. What odds the No.9 United are now said to be prioritisi­ng being Raiola man Romelu Lukaku?

There is no need to repeat the figures these people are making from the game.

It is a vast amount being sucked from a more vast pot.

Mendes had other big fish to fry when his man Nuno was being introduced at Wolves, tying up the Ederson Moraes move to Manchester City for an eye-watering £35m.

Mendes will make another fortune from the transfer, but it will probably be the scene at Wolves that thrills him most.

Mendes and his superagent­s don’t just want to be the richest people in football, they want to be the most important.

As much as those at that grand institutio­n protest, the Wolves project is one grim step along that path.

‘Jorge Mendes is not in charge of recruitmen­t. He can’t be. It is not within the rules’. No laughing at the back

 ??  ?? UP FOR IT Nuno can’t wait to start Wolves adventure
UP FOR IT Nuno can’t wait to start Wolves adventure
 ??  ?? NU FACE OF MOLINEUX Nuno is a world away from the era of Hayward (inset)
NU FACE OF MOLINEUX Nuno is a world away from the era of Hayward (inset)
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