Atletico Madrid forward Thomas Lemar is allegedly prepared to snub a potential move to Wolves or the Premier League this January window.
According to a report in Le10Sport (via Sports Mole), the World Cup winner would rather finish the season in Madrid than make a move in the January window.
Another report referenced by Sports Mole suggests that super-agent Jorge Mendes had been tasked to try to persuade Wolves to go after the winger at the request of one of his associated clubs in Atletico.
Los Rojiblancos spent roughly £63m on the left-winger according to Transfermarkt, and apparently the Spanish giants want to recuperate somewhere around that alleged fee when they do shift him on.
Lemar is now set to see out the rest of the season at the club before weighing up his options in the summer.
This will hardly be seen as a big blow to many at Wolves as the wide positions aren’t really seen as a priority, though there would likely be pandamonium across the Black Country if they did pull off a signing of this scale.
Would you pay £60m for Thomas Lemar?
Definitely, class player
No thanks, not for that money
Maybe in the summer, we have bigger fish to fry
So far in this window Wanderers are two players lighter in the first-team squad with Jesus Vallejo being sent back to Real Madrid after an unsuccessful spell and Patrick Cutrone moving back to Italy with Fiorentina.
Despite Nuno coming out and saying that he is ‘confident’ in the club making some more signings before the window ends, apart from Leonardo Campana who looks set to join next week, there doesn’t seem to be much else going on for the first team.
The Independent said that strikers and defenders are the priority, and when you look at the squad, it seems pretty obvious.
At the moment there is no like-for-like replacement with Raul Jimenez – hugely needed if the club are serious about going far in Europe. He has already played 35 games thus far and it is only mid-January, so if he gets injured and there is no one to replace him, a massive void will be left.
Similarly, even with the return of Willy Boly looking close to a return, the club have had to rely on central midfielders Leander Dendoncker and Romain Saiss to play at the back for a lot of this campaign, so adding another defender would give them more options in defence and midfield as those two can be considered to play in the middle of the park again.
