Going into this summer transfer window, it could’ve been argued that it was the most pivotal period of transfer dealings that we have had since returning to the Premier League seven years ago. After a tumultuous couple of seasons in which relegation looked to be far closer than the dizzy heights of European football we all enjoyed in the 19/20 season, the pressure was on Jeff Shi, Vítor Pereira and newly appointed Director of Professional Football Domenico Teti to solidify the squad for the upcoming campaign. In this piece, Ethan looks at how Wolves have fared overall in the summer window by grading incomings, outgoings, and then an overall grade for our transfer business in the 2025 transfer window.
Incomings
Fer López (€23 million) – B
First in this summer was 21 year-old Spanish attacking midfielder Fer López. What I would assume to be the long-term replacement for Pablo Sarabia, López has shown a lot of quality in very limited minutes so far for Wolves. It could prove to be a quality bit of business in the future, but for the here and now, I feel that the fee doesn’t represent great value for money as a rotation option having only played a limited amount of minutes in the only season of his senior career before moving to England.
Jhon Arias (€17 million) – B
After a stellar campaign in both the domestic stage of Brazil and the global stage of the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup, Arias agreed to move to the Premier League with Wolves. Seen as the replacement for the outgoing Matheus Cunha, he has made a relatively slow start adapting to life in the West Midlands. However, many players in the past have taken time to get used to English football’s physical demands, and due to the lower than expected fee, I feel it could become a good move for Wolves.
David Møller Wolfe (€12 million) – C
Wolfe was deemed by many to be the new starting left wing back for Pereira’s system with the returning loanee Hugo Bueno set to be his backup/rotation option. After just three Premier League gameweeks however, it seems as though Wolfe is now set to be back up to Bueno after a couple of poor games by his previous standards. It is still a decently cheap fee for someone of his previous experience, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable ranking it higher if he is not due to be a starter at Wolves.
Jackson Tchatchoua (€12.5 million) – A
In my opinion, the best purchase that we have made this summer. Considering that the Cameroon international was effectively Wolves’ third choice option for this position, he has started very brightly so far for us, especially against West Ham in the Carabao Cup. For a fee as low as it is as well, I think that Tchatchoua will prove to be a great replacement for Semedo on the right hand side. Hopefully the former Hellas Verona defender can continue in his current vein of form.
Ladislav Krejci (Loan Fee: €7.5 million, Potential Transfer Fee: €22.5 million) – B
What is in essence a permanent move for the Czech centre-back, bar some clever accounting, he could be a monumental signing for Wolves. Clearly having a strong pedigree as a footballer, I think it is fair to say that he will be a mainstay this season in the back three, either on the left or in the centre of it. The only possible thing that has moved this move down to a grade B for me is the size of the fee to sign him from Girona. For a player of his talent, it isn’t outrageous, but it does seemingly stray away from the typical fees that we pay for players these days.
Tolu Arokodare (€27 million) – B
A deadline day arrival for Wolves, although it had been agreed a couple of days prior, the 6 foot 6 inches Nigerian striker looks to be a serious acquisition for the club. Swapping Belgium for the West Midlands, Arokodare finished as top goalscorer last season in the Jupiler Pro League for Genk. I imagine him and Larsen up front would be a fearsome striker partnership for any defenders they come against this season. It will be interesting tactically, as I would guess that means we now go for a 3-5-2 of sorts. Overall, a great albeit expensive signing for Wolves.
Outgoings
Matheus Cunha (€74.2 million) – B
After making his feelings very clear regarding a move away from Molineux, Cunha signed a new deal with a release clause included that would make him our record sale for the fee listed above of €74.2 million. Whilst it can’t be complained about due to being a record sale for the club, I feel we could’ve got a lot closer to €80 million had he not kicked up a fuss over a move. Therefore, he can’t be given the highest grade, so I’ve settled for a B.
Rayan Aït-Nouri (€36.8 million) – C
In a similar light to the previous player, selling an incomparable player to anyone else in world football for a fee as little as this is borderline unforgivable from the Wolves hierarchy. Rayan’s qualities shown in a Wolves shirt were electric, and it would inevitably come to a time when he had outgrown the club, and subsequently would need to move on for the benefit of his career. A move to the Ethiad to play for Manchester City soon followed, and for a fairly low fee, although the Algerian did only have a year left on his contract.
Tommy Doyle (Loan with Potential Option to Buy) – B
Had it not been for the rumoured option to buy should Birmingham get promoted, this would’ve been a clear A grade. A great loan move to a very ambitious team looking to gain promotion to the Premier League come the end of the season. Although the option to buy would lead to us returning a profit, Manchester City’s rumoured 50% sell on clause will, in effect, null and void that profit anyway. Doyle clearly needed minutes after finding those hard to come by last season.
Craig Dawson (Free Transfer) – A
It may seem harsh to grade this as an A on first glance, but a player that wasn’t even registered since January already running out of contract at the end of the season is the best scenario for both parties. Dawson gets to find another club, probably at a better level for himself in his physical condition these days and Wolves don’t get an unhappy player lingering around the club still under contract. A great servant in Old Gold but the right time for him to leave.
Nélson Semedo (Free Transfer) – E
Captain. Paid a fee of €32 million. Left on a free transfer. Outgoing transfers don’t get as bad as Semedo’s did for Wolves this summer. I think a big issue with this specifically is that rather than making his decision clear at the end of last season, Wolves were dragged along until he finally rejected the quite frankly ludicrous offer Wolves gave him to renew and continue his football in the Premier League. You can’t help but think as well that he would’ve been hoping for ba igger move than to Turkey. Very easy E grade this transfer.
Pablo Sarabia (Free Transfer) – A
Again, it may seem odd to categorise this as an A as we have had no return for a player who only a season ago registered four goals and seven assists in the Premier League. However, the Spaniard was Wolves’ highest earner and was mainly a substitute last season for the club. Didn’t pay too large a fee either and gave us some good times at the club, especially Manchester United away last season, as we continued through our six game winning run. Also, he has managed to get his big last paycheck over in Qatar, boosting this to an A grade.
Nasser Djiga (Loan) – A
Paying a fee of €12 million on deadline day in January 2025, the young defender moved from Serbia to the West Midlands with high hopes, having played regularly in the UEFA Champions League before moving to England. Djiga clearly needed a loan move this summer and managed to get one in which he continues playing in the UK and gets to play European football as well. It hasn’t started the best for him up in Glasgow for Rangers but he has showed promising signs early doors. Hopefully he kicks on and begins to show his qualities again in Scotland.
Chiquinho (Free Transfer) – A
Following a similar theme in this section, it seems hard to judge a player signed for a fee leave for nothing. Although in the case of Chiquinho, Wolves do retain a sell-on clause should the Portuguese winger move clubs again in the future. Starting his career in Old Gold very well, that early promise was ruined after a long-term injury during a pre-season friendly a few years ago. It was the right time for him to move on and hopefully he does well back in his homeland.
Joe Hodge (Undisclosed) – A
It may seem harsh, but I don’t think that the Irishman was ever really first team quality for us. Played occasionally for the first team after signing originally as an academy player, he demonstrated the quality coaching drilled into him at Manchester City over various loan moves in the EFL. He leaves now to, very randomly, play in Portugal for Tondela for an undisclosed fee. I would assume that, despite the fee being unknown, Wolves will have made a small profit on the midfielder. Grade A.
Bastien Meupiyou (Undisclosed) – D
Just a horrendously mismanaged signing for Wolves. Signed for €5 million last summer as an 18 year old, he now leaves on what is a permanent deal to join Chiquinho at Alverca in Portugal. The way that the deal is phrased appears as though it is a glorified loan move in which Wolves can buy him back in the future should he perform well in Liga Portugal. Either way, seems a strange decision and one I can see going wrong for Wolves.
Boubacar Traoré (Loan with Potential Option to Buy) – C
What was again another deadline day acquisition for Wolves, the Mali international has never really developed as expected in England for the hefty fee of €11 million. He rejoins his former club Metz in France on loan with an option to make it permanent should they wish. In three games for the team, he has already scored, so I hope that Wolves can recover as much of that fee as possible but I’m not hopeful that it will be anywhere near enough back.
Gonçalo Guedes (€4 million) – E
€32.6 million. That was how much Guedes signed for in the summer of 2022. Recouping just €4 million of that is, to be honest, shameful. The former Portugal international could go down as Wolves worst ever signing under FOSUN which is never a nice tag to have as a footballer. The only reason this ranks the same as Semedo, despite making some money back, is purely that Guedes has barely played for Wolves and when he has, hasn’t looked at all like he wanted to be there.
Tom King (Undisclosed) – C
Ranking this as a C does feel odd considering we have technically profited on a player who, on the face of it, has only played a single game for Wolves. However, as has been seen and will be alluded to in the overall rating, Wolves have lost another player classed as homegrown and someone who was also a great character in and around the dressing room. It can also be assumed that those reasons are also the same reasons that he has signed for David Moyes’ Everton.
Fábio Silva (€22.5 million) – A
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would receive as much return on investment for Fábio Silva as we have done here. Obviously, it still isn’t great that the fee of €40 million has returned just over half of that to see the former wonderkid leave Molinuex behind for Borussia Dortmund. Including loan fees, however, that figure could come very close to making all of our money back. As has been well documented, it never quite worked out for Fábio but not through lack of trying. I wish him all the best as he leaves for Dortmund.
Pedro Lima (Loan) – C
On the face of it, it seems a decent move where he will receive more game time than he currently will at Wolves, which is more than fair to him. The issue I have with it stems from him losing his potential to be homegrown in England now and I can’t see him playing that many games for Porto anyway.
Saša Kalajdžić (Loan) – B
The only caveat stopping this from being an A is that it leaves us short up front now, but a really good loan move for him. Back to a familiar environment to help rebuild his career after a lot of bad luck with injuries, and Wolves have a recall clause for January to help protect us a bit. Hopefully he can show the early promise that he showed when he was in Germany.
Overall Rating – D
Grading this transfer window overall as a D after grading many signings B and a lot of departures A seems odd. But overall, it can’t be anything but. The players that have joined are obvious downgrades from what we had last season, as we miraculously stayed up to finish in 16th. Yes, individually I rate them very highly but it can’t be ignored that none of them would’ve started last season over their departing counterparts. Then, where quality was needed to be added, especially in midfield, it wasn’t, which in my mind is a monumentally risky decision, if it can even be called a decision. Another issue is the homegrown one. No club in their eighth consecutive season of Premier League football should be scrambling around for free agent homegrown midfielders to actually register a complete first team for a season. Lack of planning yet again by those in charge will, I believe, leave us circling ever closer to the drain that is relegation. It does seem harsh as well, but at some point Pereira has to take some blame for some of the decisions made this summer. I mentioned at the time that getting rid of Matt Hobbs would prove a bad decision, and it seems that has been vindicated with too much upheaval for a critical transfer window. Overall, it has to be given a grading of D, and even that feels somewhat generous.
(All fees from Transfermarkt)
