Looking through a wordcount tool in the two books I wrote on the Nunolution I wondered how many times I had written the word Portugal or Portuguese. I can say now, they didn’t pop up often, in fact in the total count from both books ‘Portugal’ came up 8 times and Portuguese 14. It’s not a lot is it? I don’t have to wonder at why flump fans at other football clubs are obsessed with us having Portuguese players here and no English players. But here’s a thing. I don’t care. If we have 500 Portugals at Molineux it just adds to the beautiful fume from the Press and Fandom in general. I hope some of them feel that badly about Wolves it inspires them to heights of extreme rage, and I hope they take to the internet to vent that angst. Please do. I want to see opposition fans throwing themselves from stands like that Celtic doughnut during an Old Firm match a few years ago. I want to see rant videos on Youtube, I want vicious tweets of rage and then I want all that injected straight into my eyeball. I love that shit. More please.

Semedo. Nelson Semedo. He was a Barcelona player and many have oozed beautiful words about pedigree and that Barcelona patina that seems to rub off on their players. I will be honest with you and say with all honesty I don’t care where he came from and what he did there. I think coming to the Golden Palace is a restart for any footballer who wishes to learn something new and fresh. The past is gone and dusted. I know the experience will stand Nelly Semedo in good stead, but this is new stuff now. New ways and new lessons to learn. Also…it’s not a big moan but there are many reasons a player wants to leave or is willing to leave a club. Personal reasons, money there are loads of them. Maybe it’s their new Coach throwing his weight around by pointing at this player and that one, wanting them gone, scorched earth policy leaving a rich ground for Wolves to pick the most fertile players for themselves? But putting other names in front of him as a reason he cant get a place in a Barcelona team is silly. I’ve just read a German Press article about him where the writer explains that “Semedo seems to wish for space to run and the dogmatic Barca Holy Writ says no”. A little snippet but it kind of explains why he would come to Wolves. Apart from the fact most the team he knows quite well from International duties. I dunno.

I suppose everybody has watched Nellys Youtube videos. He is very fast, almost as fast as Adama. That right wing is going to burn isn’t it? Nelly can also add his quite forensic passing as well. Some of his passes are sublime and delicate with deft touches that last maybe a hair of a split second. I watch a few frames where the ball is hit at him knee height and he traps the ball, which is then gone in a blink. He never even looked at the ball. So quality in abundance. He can kick a ball straight. He executes balls as well, weighs up options, he doesn’t take long to do it either. He’s a fast thinker, an attribute we know Nuno loves. Is he adaptable? Will he take on knowledge? I think he will or he wouldn’t be here. But he’s got to defend as well. He’s five foot ten. Not a big man. So I watch him when he isn’t on the ball and he isn’t afraid to battle for a ball and at times to shepherd players into neutral positions. Is he slight? Maybe, but where he loses out on bulk and physical presence he has a steel hard core. He is not bullied off the ball. Fair play. He’s not a goal scorer on stats but he has that split second decision making of a striker down to a fine art. Some of his goals have been instant reactions to a rebound or an errant ball that lands at his feet. Will Nuno and the team build on this? Doherty had a habit of turning up in the box as a spare man quite often, heading a goal or toe bunting the thing ‘netwards’. Added quality in Nelly for sure. Will he be tasked to get in the box sometimes? I see Adama and Nelly getting some sort of unspoken relationship for sure. I mean if they grow the metaphysical understanding it will reflect (for me) that telepathic relationship Dicko and Sahko had. Interesting crosses too, pin point some of them. But the Traore-Nelly thing interests me. What has Nuno seen between the lines and spreadsheets? I sense that Barcelona didn’t offer what Nelly himself was offering that team and it’s very easy to get lost in the machinery of an entity like Barcelona. Perhaps the sale of Nelly gave more to Wolves than the abstract financial benefits will to Barca, who knows.

But again we have added quality to our team. The timetable for domination is again at the front of the Executives minds. That means they see a definite end to all this Covid madness and a lucrative few seasons to come. But this quality. As a fan of a good few years I’m still absolutely gobsmacked that we are attracting this sort of player. Forget about the Uncle Jorge angle. He’s a businessman, so are Fosun now it’s all about value and investment and you really do have to shrug off this strange mentality we seem to have dragged with us from Division 4 when players we had grown to love were sold to other teams. Uncle Jorge doesn’t really care about Wolves and giving them the best players he has in his roster. It’s about chucking a player in with Nuno and his School of Wizardry at Compton and as he lets Wolves enjoy that player for a few seasons he knows damn well that said player is going to increase in value. As the Youth system at Compton has failed somewhat there has to be other tactical decisions about how that growth and investment is found. The club has helped Uncle Jorge as much as Uncle Jorge has helped us. So, yeah I am still raw about Graham Turner thinking about selling Bully. Now I’m older I see exactly what he meant. Use the money to build a better quality team. It’s not like that any more so there is no point moaning and groaning about it. Wolves are a shop window for talent. We will hold onto them as long as they fit the ethos of what Nuno is trying to achieve and when a player is deemed too inefficient or a ridiculous offer is made they will go. Trade offs of course. The University of Compton is starting to form value from football players that have lost their way in some sense. Wolves are a shop window for big money. A few years ago I would have been annoyed at that but now I see it. Quality players can go, we are sad, new better players come in, we are happy. More money for the club, more power, a trophy, League Champions the prizes are innumerable and make me dizzy. But don’t think for a minute that it’s all about a love of Wolverhampton Wanderers and our history. It’s really not a lot to do with that. Even if we, the great unwashed have a vital part to play in our teams success we have to realign our minds with the fact that most of the players we have grown to love will soon be gone and that is the way of things. By realign I mean we have to look at the greater picture and even if I have said it before I will say it again, we as fans have to extend our battered brains to encompass what Fosun are doing here and grow with them instead of being emotional when someone like Little Wolf goes off to the dark lands of Liverpool, Manchester or London.

I think Nelly will do well here and I am very happy with his appearance but there will come a day when we will have to wave goodbye to him or another one of our players and that makes me guard my heart a little nowadays when a big signing comes in and it’s less about names and more about planning, more money and players winging in and out of the team at the prompting of Wizard Nunos pointy finger.

PS Sorry about the photos and script everywhere I’m trying out different layouts and I don’t know what I’m doing