29 January 2021

Nuno Espirito Santo not ruling out more signings at Wolves

29 January 2021

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo is not ruling out the club adding to the signing of Willian Jose before the transfer window closes on Monday.

Striker Jose joined last week on loan from Real Sociedad for the rest of the season, with the Molineux outfit holding the option to make the move permanent in the summer.

The Brazilian subsequently made his debut on Wednesday as a substitute in the 0-0 draw at Chelsea.

At his press conference ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace this weekend, Nuno was asked if he could see Wolves trying to sign more players before Monday’s deadline.

The Portuguese said: “As long as the transfer window is open, anything can happen. It will be over on Monday – until then, let’s see what’s going on.”

Nuno also said “anything can happen” with regard to Patrick Cutrone, the frontman Wolves recalled from a loan spell with Fiorentina earlier this month who is being linked with a swift return to Italy.

Asked about the possibility of Cutrone doing that, Nuno said: “We have to wait.

“The intention about recalling Patrick was mainly because we needed (him), and because he was not in a good position in Florence.

“So we decided to call him back, and now I count on him, his work and his training, but anything can happen. So let’s wait and see.”

As well as striker Raul Jimenez, who suffered a fractured skull in November, Wolves have Jonny and Marcal on their injury list.

Full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri is also unavailable for Saturday’s Palace clash after coming off at half-time at Chelsea.

Midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White returned to group training on Friday after self-isolating having tested positive for coronavirus.

Regarding the current injury situation, Nuno said: “We still have problems, big problems.

“Unfortunately during the game we lost Rayan. We have some more issues – I don’t want to give you too many details, so try to keep it among us and try to take advantage of some kind of surprise. But we have issues we will try to solve with the squad.”

Of Jose, he said: “He is one solution more, and a good option for us. He is a good player. He has integrated well, he had a couple of training sessions.

“Willian is ready to go and it is up to us to decide and take advantage of his enormous talent he has as a striker.”

Wolves are currently 13th in the table, while Palace are one place lower, with both on 23 points from 20 matches.

Nuno’s men are winless in their last seven league outings and had not registered a clean sheet in 12 before the Chelsea match.

Nuno said of the shut-out: “It was truly important for us as a team – it is one of the basics that we need to repeat, and to be consistent on that part.

“We made mistakes and that’s over – we tried to solve them in the training ground, to try to eradicate it from our game. A clean sheet is the beginning of everything.”

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