WHY’S NEVES AT WOLVES?

RUBEN NEVES is 20 and has already captained Porto in a Champions League game. He has made 93 senior appearances, won two caps for Portugal and has attracted interest from Premier League clubs including Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool. Last week, he signed for Wolves in a deal worth £15.8m. We know the shop-window benefits of the move. Neves’s agent, Jorge Mendes, has been engaged as Wolves’ de facto head of recruitment. He has installed a client, Nuno Espirito Santo, as coach, who previously worked with Neves at Porto. Mendes sees a future for Neves in English football and Wolves is his stepping stone. Impress there and he moves seamlessly into the Premier League, having learned the language and experienced English demands and conditions. Yet why does Neves need Wolves to project him when he had Porto? It’s not as if Porto’s players have had problems getting noticed before. Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, Paulo Ferreira, James Rodriguez, Hulk, Nicolas Otamendi, Radamel Falcao, Joao Moutinho. They’ve hardly toiled away in anonymity, hoping forlornly for a big move. Chelsea have taken many more players from Porto lately than they have from Wolves. So, it’s a fantastic deal for the Championship club. If Neves is as good as his reputation suggests, he should be a cut above at this level. Wolves get a good season out of him, perhaps realise their promotion ambitions, then sell him on either for a healthy profit or at least their money back. What a bargain. Almost too good to be true, in fact. And that’s the problem. It’s almost too good to be true.