Wolverhampton Wanderers' poor season has gone from bad to worse in recent weeks, with their 4-0 defeat to Leicester City at the weekend compounding their recent misery.

Sacking Bruno Lage after just one Premier League win following a 2-0 defeat to West Ham United at the start of the month hasn’t improved things.

Decisions made in the summer were arguably the key to this massive drop-off in form by the Wolves side. Allowing defenders Conor Coady and Romain Saiss to leave during the transfer window has contributed to their poor defensive record, which has seen them concede 19 goals in all competitions so far.

Lage might have still been in charge had a move materialised for Portuguese defender David Carmo, however, as the defender would very much have been a perfect heir to Coady.

Shi had a shocker on Carmo

Jeff Shi was keen on bringing the centre-back to Molineux according to O Jojo (via Birmingham Mail), with the player having a £34.3m release clause in his contract.

Despite Carmo missing large chunks of last season as he was recovering from an injury, he eventually sealed a move to fellow Portuguese side Porto and Wolves missed their chance.

In Braga’s Europa League run last time out, Carmo shone with an average SofaScore match rating of 7.14, winning 69% of his total duels and making a staggering 6.9 clearances per game.

He has extended this form into the current season, helping Porto keep three clean sheets in his six starts, while he has only been dribbled past 0.2 times per match.

His former manager Carlos Carvalhal was full of praise for the defender upon his return from injury last time out, saying: “He is a fantastic centre-back, one of the best in the country.” And with Wolves losing a host of central defenders during the window, signing Carmo would have improved this area of the team.

It certainly looks like the 23-year-old has made the better choice, choosing Champions League football and a title challenge for what is sure to be a long and arduous season for Wolves facing a relegation battle.

The Old Gold should have unearthed their perfect Coady heir in Carmo, but it was yet another Lage disaster class in the transfer market.