Aston Villa are reportedly set to complete a surprise swoop for Wolves midfielder Joao Gomes as he has said his goodbyes already.
The 25-year-old joined Wolves from Flamengo in 2023 and went on to make 130 appearances for the club, scoring eight goals and providing six assists to go with his influence in midfield.
Albeit he was part of the squad that was relegated from the Premier League last season, it appears as though he has caught the eye of Unai Emery and is on his way to joining us.
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According to BirminghamLive, Gomes has left Wolves’ training camp in Portugal and has said his goodbyes to his teammates as he is set to complete a move to Villa worth around £35m.
Further, it’s added that he will undergo his medical in the coming days and formalise his move, as Villa have moved quickly to bring him in as a crucial reinforcement this summer.
Youri Tielemans completed a move to Manchester United earlier this week, while Amadou Onana suffered an ACL injury at the World Cup and could now miss the entire season depending on how his rehabilitation goes.
In turn, our midfield became a real priority to ensure that we covered those losses and found a successor for Tielemans, who can dictate and control tempo in that area of the pitch, and it appears as though Gomes has emerged as Emery’s preferred solution.
With Villa also expected to wrap up the signing of Johan Manzambi from Freiburg this week, it’s an exciting time as although the expectation is that we might have to sell more players this summer in order to manage our wage bill and balance our spending, this could now be part of a wider rebuild of the squad as we look to bring down the average age of the squad and begin a new cycle after the success in recent years.
Just as he did with Tielemans and Douglas Luiz prior to that, whoever Villa were to sign for that midfield role was always going to benefit from Emery being able to develop and improve their respective game to take them to the next level, and hopefully it could be Gomes who is next to enjoy that process.