Wolves midfielder set for Championship move
Wolverhampton Wanderers transfer news from BirminghamLive as club prepares for the 2023/24 Premier League season
Wolves midfielder Luke Cundle looks set to join Championship side Plymouth Argyle on loan.
The 21-year-old is on his way to the Pilgrims, according to multiple sources, to gain more experience having come through the academy at Molineux. Cundle also spent last season on loan in the Championship, starting 21 league games for Swansea with a further 11 substitute appearances.
Cundle impressed as an attacking midfielder and another loan was expected to further his development. The Warrington-born midfielder has been at Wolves since 2014, progressing through the academy to be involved with the first team squad then get his first loan when Swansea came calling.
Wolves are using the Championship to give their promising young players competitive experience and hopefully bridge the gap from academy to first team football at Molineux.
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31-year-old has brought one top quality to Wolves that Joao Moutinho just didn’t have
Wolves’ pre-season is now over and Julen Lopetegui is preparing his players for the first Premier League game against Manchester United next Monday.
There has been a lot of noise around Wanderers in recent weeks.
But just lately, Wolves have started to tick on the pitch.
The 3-1 win over Rennes on Saturday was very impressive.
Wolves played some great football. They created chances and managed to score three goals which has been pretty unheard for the club in recent times.
Wolves also looked really organised.
It was the hugely encouraging performance many fans needed to see.
There were plenty of positives to note from the game with Rennes – and one of the biggest was how great Pablo Sarabia’s deliveries were.
Pablo Sarabia has real quality from set-pieces
For the longest time, many Wolves fans have not really batted an eyelid when the team gets a set-piece.
That’s because in the past, more often than not, Wolves have tended to waste their opportunities.
Joao Moutinho, as good as he was in a Wolves shirt, was a big culprit.
It was hard to believe sometimes that a player of his quality could be so poor at corners. Far too many would not clear the first man.
But Wolves now appear to have a player with serious quality from set-piece situtions.
Against Rennes, Sarabia put in several top class deliveries that, on another day, might have led to goals.
And actually one did. His floated corner, although it didn’t appear particularly dangerous, was amazingly turned in by Rayan Ait-Nouri for the opening goal.
But after that, Sarabia sent in a number of wicked deliveries for the likes of Max Kilman, Craig Dawson and Sasa Kalajdzic to attack.
Sarabia set-piece quality is a game changer for Wolves
Set-pieces are a huge part of football.
They represent great chances to score goals and in the past, Wolves just have not made the most of these opportunities.
Of course, there were goals here and there. But Wanderers should undoubtedly have been more prolific.
Potentially, Wolves stand to score more often from these scenarios now that Sarabia is on them.
It has been a bit of a slow start for him at Molineux since his arrival in January.
But he was clearly adapting to the Premier League, and this term he could be a key player.
Julen Lopetegui called him a ‘very complete player’ last season, and Wolves fans will hope he now lives up to that billing.
It is certainly refreshing to see quality balls going into the box.
