Wolves haven’t made too many mistakes in their ascent into European football but the signing of Patrick Cutrone is one negative to come from this season.
The Midlands outfit spent a significant sum of £16.6m on the former Milan forward, with the Italian becoming one of the club’s most expensive ever arrivals.
Despite that, Cutrone simply didn’t fit in at Molineux. His return of three goals in 24 appearances evidences that, but the problems seem to lie deeper than that, judging by Nuno Espirito Santo’s actions.
Cutrone started 17 out of 21 league games on the bench, yet played more than ten minutes in just four of those games, despite providing an alternative option to Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez, and that shows that his manager simply had little faith in him.
Loaning him out to Fiorentina in January only compounded that, and by bringing in Daniel Podence it indicated that Nuno may not envisage a future for the 22-year-old at Wolves, and that he has learnt from his mistake of signing the player in the first place.
The forward did have starting opportunities, too, even starting playing at Manchester City where he was guilty of missing chances.
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The Europa League group stage game against Braga at home also made him the focal point of the attack, but he blazed a superb chance over the crossbar when it was much easier to at least find the target, leading to this reaction.
That game finished 1-0 to the Portuguese outfit, too, making his miss even more crucial, and that could have contributed to Nuno losing belief in his summer signing.
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It will be interesting to see if he is given another chance this summer to resurrect his Wolves career, or whether his manager seeks an alternative route moving forward.
In other news, a deal for another player in the squad is proving to be a far more astute piece of business…