The £10m ideal replacement for Ruben Neves could be staring Wolves in the face amid Barcelona interest

Here’s the problem for Wolves – they really, really don’t want to lose Rúben Neves. He’s been their best player ever since he joined while they were still in the Championship. But they also really need him to leave, because they have some serious FFP problems to contend with, and the reported €40m transfer fee would go a long way to resolving those.

Now that reports from Spain suggest that Barcelona have cooled their interest in the Portuguese midfielder after failing to find a way to make the money work (or convince head coach Xavi Hernández to sign off), Wolves are back to square one. They have few high-value saleable assets – and as much as it may tug at the heartstrings, Neves must go, so now the problem is finding a buyer with Barça apparently out of the running.

And when that problem has finally been solved, then we move on to the next – how to find a replacement. The transfer budget will be limited this summer, and the focus needs to be on finding a proven Premier League playmaker on a Championship budget. Needless to say, that’s easier said than done.

By way of throwing an idea into the mix – and it’s fair to say it would be met with a few sneers if we suggested it on the bar stools of Wolverhampton’s pubs – may we remind Wolves, or indeed any other club looking for a budget conscious addition to the midfield, about the existence of Harry Winks?

If you’d forgotten about him, we’d understand. After falling out of favour at Tottenham Hotspur under José Mourinho and Antonio Conte, the ten-cap England international spent last season on loan at Serie A club Sampdoria. It’s fair to say it didn’t go well, not that Winks was especially at fault.

Sampdoria were a complete mess this season – they only managed three wins all season and finished dead last in the Italian top tier, and have been on the brink of bankruptcy. Winks was not the cause of the problem, just a fish out of water in a terrible team who couldn’t do much to halt an entirely inexorable slide towards Serie B.

To make matters worse, Winks wasn’t able to get on the field until January, missing the whole first half of the season with an ankle injury – and complained in a press interview that while he was well-looked after in Genoa, not a single representative from Spurs bothered to get in touch and check up on him, or even offer some basic well-wishes. From a man who became a key player under Mauricio Pochettino to a player Spurs won’t ever pick up the phone for. He has one more year on his contract with Tottenham and will almost certainly be on his way somewhere.

Sampdoria had an option to buy but their relegation, combined with their financial concerns, takes that off the table. Spurs will likely be willing to move Winks on at a knock-down price – Transfermarket guess that he’s still worth around £10m, but under the circumstances it’s very unlikely it would take even half of that to get hold of him.

But can Winks still offer the same quality and consistency that he did for Spurs three or four years ago? It’s a fair question – there have been several injuries since his salad days – but he’s still only 27 and his passing statistics have been remarkably consistent over time, even when his minutes have been reduced. Those numbers also compare surprisingly favourably with Neves – he doesn’t have the same range as the Portuguese and tries far fewer killer balls, but boasts a better completion rate and is nothing if not tidy in possession.

He’s also a better dribbler than Neves and makes more progressive plays per match – a key indicator of a player’s ability to spark attacks and get the ball forward efficiently. If Winks can be nurtured back to anything like his best, there’s still a very good ball-playing midfield in there.

There are, of course, areas where Neves is comfortably better. Winks is no kind of goal threat – something Wolves direly lack – and doesn’t have the long-range shooting ability of Neves. He’s also less effective at regaining possession, a very under-appreciated element of Neves’ game. There’s a reason that Neves could be going to Barcelona while such a move is well out of Winks’ league as it stands.

But then, can Wolves really find another Neves? With limited funds, the best chance of doing so would be picking up a young talent and building him up over time – but there’s no argument that, given how poorly things were going before Julen Lopetegui took over, Wolves are among the more obvious relegation candidates next season, especially if the Spanish coach makes good on his apparent threat to leave. There may not be the time needed to bed a young talent in. Wolves need someone who’s good on the ball, can run a midfield, and won’t cost an arm and a leg. Winks may not be an inspiring signing on paper, but he fits the bill.

Wolves have not yet been linked with a clear-cut replacement. There are rumours that they’re keen on a couple of youngsters who lit up the second tier last season – Bristol City’s Alex Scott and James McAtee, who impressed on loan at Sheffield United – but they’re both different types of players, the former more defensively-minded and the latter more of a final-third player. Both have the potential to be exceptional players, but neither are passing masters – they’re ball-carriers first and foremost, and neither can replicate Neves’ creative abilities.

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Perhaps Winks is simply past his prime, the victim of one too many injuries and too much time stuck on the bench under unsympathetic coaches. But as a bargain-basement signing, with a proven track record at the top level behind him… worth a go, surely?