A former Wolves player who was sold for £1.3 million is now outperforming his replacement.
Julen Lopetegui put Wolverhampton Wanderers in a tricky situation after stepping down from his position as head coach just three days before the Midlands club travelled to Old Trafford on the opening day of the 2023/24 season.
The former Europa League-winning manager took over last winter, with the Wanderers sitting rock bottom of the Premier League table but managed to steer the side to an eventual 13th-place finish despite scoring the fewest number of goals out of all 20 teams.
The Guardian reported that the Spaniard had “repeatedly voiced unhappiness” at the lack of investment from the board amid Financial Fair Play constraints during the summer, which led to his exit in the end.
However, one of his final acts as Wolves boss was to sanction the sale of a player who is currently outperforming Matheus Nunes’ statistics, following the latter’s £53m move to English champions Manchester City during the summer window.
Hayao Kawabe’s sale
Hayao Kawabe was signed by former Wolves boss Bruno Lage in January 2022 from Swiss Super League side Grasshoppers for a reported £500k on a three-and-a-half-year deal, becoming the first Japanese player in the club’s elusive history, but was sent back on loan to the Zurich-based team for the remainder of the 2021/22 campaign and the following season
