Over the past few years, Wolves have shown that they are quite capable of spending money in the transfer market on new players to help them progress.

One player that the Old Gold have been linked with in the past that they arguably made a mistake missing out on is Lille midfielder, Renato Sanches.

Back in the previous summer transfer window, Wolves apparently ended talks with the French club over the signing of Sanches after the two clubs failed to find an agreement on a loan deal.

Since then, the Portuguese international has shown just what Wolves are missing after being listed as Lille’s highest-rated player based on his performances in Ligue 1 this season with an overall rating of 7.07/10 from WhoScored, which would make him Wolves’ joint-second highest rated player by the same metric.

This suggests that the club made a pretty big error by ending their talks over a potential move for the midfielder last summer.

As well as having a solid season this time around, the experience the 24-year-old has of playing and winning trophies for big clubs such as Lille, Bayern Munich and Benfica would have made him a standout signing for Wolves and Jeff Shi if they did manage to secure his signature when they had the chance.

Labelled as a “powerful” player by Kevin Campbell, the midfield maestro also has a decent amount of international experience with 32 senior appearances for Portugal under his belt alongside the likes of current Wolves players like Nelson Semedo and Joao Moutinho, as well as some of the other Portuguese players in the Premier League like Bernardo Silva and Cristiano Ronaldo to name a few.

Moving forward, with the £27m-rated star previously saying that he feels ready to join a big club, the upcoming summer transfer window could be a good opportunity for the Old Gold to reignite their interest in the former Swansea City loanee and finally get him to Molineux, which would surely please Bruno Lage to have a player of Sanches’ quality in his squad.

Also, with Moutinho’s current contract at the club set to expire in the summer, Sanches could be Lage’s dream long-term replacement for the veteran if he ends up leaving and Wolves end up secure the Lille gem on a permanent deal.

In other news: Fosun howler: Wolves eye summer transfer deal that’ll leave fans fuming – opinion