Wolves Opinion: Nuno should forget about signing Joe Allen this summer
According to Stoke-on-Trent Live, Stoke City midfielder Joe Allen has been linked with a move to Premier League high-flyers Wolves ahead of the summer transfer window.
Stoke Sentinel claims that Wolves’ Director of Football Kevin Thelwell has been a regular visitor to the bet365 Stadium and Joe Allen is believed to have caught his eye.
However, the same report claims that the Potters are in no mood to let go of their prized asset, with manager Nathan Jones making it clear that he wants the 29-year-old to stay at the club next season and play a key role in their surge for promotion.
Allen has been a key figure in difficult times for Stoke since joining from Liverpool back in 2016 for a fee of £13 million.
He was one of the shining lights of Stoke’s 2017-18 Premier League campaign which ended in relegation and the Welsh international also played a key role for the Potters in the Championship this past season, contributing with 6 goals and 4 assists, as the club finished 16th in the second-tier.
Meanwhile, Wolves confirmed their entry into the qualifying stages of the Europa League for the first time in 38 years, as Watford suffered a 6-0 humiliation at the hands of Man City in the FA Cup final on Saturday.
It wasn’t long ago that the club was languishing in League One and Nuno Espirito Santo has managed to accomplish a feat of rare charisma and brilliance by guiding Wolves to a Championship crown and a 7th-place finish in the Premier League in consecutive seasons.
The owners also deserve a fair share of the credit for showing the ambition to bring in several international players to the club and their investment has certainly paid rich dividends.
To put things into perspective, Wolves need to look at some quality players in the summer transfer window as a part of their preparations for the qualifying stages of the Europa League.
They have already done some excellent business by striking permanent deals for Atletico Madrid loanees Raul Jimenez and Jonny Otto Castro over the last six months, while Leander Dendoncker’s loan deal from Anderlecht is also set to become permanent.
It is necessary for them to reshuffle their squad and accommodate a few fresh faces but Joe Allen is not the kind of player that they should be looking at.
That’s not to say Allen is a bad player. The Welshman has proven himself as a top-class midfield enforcer in the Premier League over the years but he is at a stage in his career where his powers are going to be on the decline very soon.
Agreed, he would be a good squad player at Molineux for the next couple of seasons but he is one of Stoke’s most important players and Wolves are likely to have to pay over the odds to secure his services.
Plus, he won’t be much of an upgrade on their existing midfield options, and given that stability in the middle of the park has been one of the pillars of Wolves’ success, they might as well look to improve other areas of their squad.
Ruben Neves continues to be a world-class central midfielder in the making, while Joao Moutinho has proven himself to be a massive bargain since his move to the Black Country outfit last summer.
Romain Saiss has done a great job whenever he has been called upon by the manager and 18-year-old Morgan Gibbs-White has shown that he has the potential to develop into a future England international.
Signing Joe Allen would not be the best thing for Belgian Leander Dendocker, who has established himself as one of the key cogs in Wolves’ midfield after his initial struggles at the club.
All in all, Wolves have enough resources in their midfield for the time being, and even if they are looking to increase competition for places, they would be better off looking at bright emerging prospects.
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That said, Wolves would dodge a big bullet by dropping their interest in the former Liverpool midfielder.
