Wolverhampton Wanderers spent wildly last summer under then-manager Bruno Lage, securing deals for Goncalo Guedes (£27.5m), Matheus Nunes (£42.2m), and Nathan Collins (£20.5m) as the Old Gold splashed the cash in order to replicate or even better their impressive tenth-place finish in 2021/22.
Fast forward eight matches into the current Premier League season, and the Molineux side had recorded just one victory, with Lage unsurprisingly losing his job with the club in the relegation zone and none of his big-money signings managing to click as swiftly as he’d have hoped.
It was a player that the 46-year-old missed out on during the summer transfer window which proved to be his biggest howler in charge of the club, especially with the form that one Goncalo Ramos has shown in the subsequent six-month period for both club and country.
How has Goncalo Ramos done since Wolves missed out on him?
The Portuguese forward has been in devastating form this season, making the missed opportunity even more heartbreaking for the Old Gold, as there is no doubt that he could have significantly improved their goalscoring woes.
Wolves were linked with a move for him before the start of the season, with Benfica looking for £30m in order to sanction their star striker’s departure.
Ramos enjoyed a breakthrough campaign in 2021/22, scoring eight goals for the Lisbon club, but it was at the start of this season that he really began to explode and showcase his talents to the continent.
In four Champions League qualifying matches, he netted four times to propel his team into the group stage, adding another goal for good measure in that phase of the competition.
This has been supplemented with 13 domestic goals so far this season, and the 21-year-old duly earned a place in the Portugal squad for the World Cup in Qatar.
He started twice for his country as they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Morocco, but his performance in the last 16 against Switzerland gave the world a glimpse of his full capabilites.
The youngster received a sublime Sofascore rating of 9.8/10, the best on the pitch by some margin, as he a wonderful hat-trick on the night that he made light of Cristiano Ronaldo’s shock omission. He also grabbed an assist, took six shots in total, made two key passes and created a further big chance in what was a World Cup performance which will go down in history.
He showcased his prowess in the air by winning three of his five aerial duels, and this natural goalscoring ability – combined with an already impressive physical presence – would have vastly improved Wolves’ squad under Lage.
Talent scout Jacek Kulig lavished praise on the striker in 2021 as he claimed 11 goals in just nine matches for Benfica B, tweeting that those were “outrageous numbers”, and it certainly looks like Ramos hasn’t slowed down one bit after graduating to senior football.
