Wolverhampton Wanderers missed out on the opportunity to sign now Leicester City “baller” Youri Tielemans because their manager at the time, Nuno Espirito Santo, said no.
The Belgian midfielder moved to the Premier League in 2019 from Monaco joining the Foxes for £35m, but it was Wolves who had the chance to sign him first.
A report in the Telegraph reveals that Tielemans was ‘recommended’ to Nuno by the recruitment team at Molineux but that he decided to ‘veto’ any move for him.
Nuno has since left Wolves and eventually joined Spurs before being sacked earlier this season.
Better than Neves
If Tielemans had ended up at Molineux then he would be competing with Portuguese star Ruben Neves in the middle of the park.
He may also have had more of an impact. Since coming to the Premier League he has featured 145 times for Leicester and been involved in 46 goals.
Both him and Neves are 24-years old and both are highly rated. They like to get on the ball often with Tielemans completing 989 passes so far this season, which is more than any other Leicester midfielder or forward.
His expected goals rate is also much higher then Neves’ at 4.3 compared to 1.1.
While Neves is a talented player, we do wonder what Wolves would have been like if Nuno didn’t block a move for Tielemans, and just how good they could have been together?
It’s not just going forward that the Belgian excels either, he has a high percentage when it comes to defensive actions, having a 31% successful press percentage beating Neves’ 28%.
He has also blocked 13 shots so far this season compared to the Wolves midfielder’s five.
What’s Wolves’ loss is Leicester’s gain, however it won’t be long before teams in the Champions League come calling for Tielemans’ services.
There’s been reported links from Arsenal and Manchester United with the £49m-rated midfielder recently saying “I want to play Champions League football” when being quizzed on the speculation.
But for the rest of the season at least, the Foxes will have him at their disposal, and if Wolves had avoided making the huge mistake of not signing him then it could have been them saying that.
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