How Wolves go about welcoming new players to Molineux this summer will seemingly depend on who leaves the club.
Reports this week dictate that if the Old Gold want to spend big, they’ll have to sell some of their best players first.
Ruben Neves is one of the stars of this team and could be sold but there remain doubts over the future of Adama Traore too.
It’s a complex time for the Wolves board who lost Nuno Santo as a result of their proposed transfer plans this summer.
He was left unhappy with the lack of resources he was going to be given so, understandably, he took his leave.
One manager the club have been linked with is Bruno Lage. A deal has been moving forward in the last few days and it would appear that he is at the top of their shortlist.
He and his team were dubbed “spectacular” for the way they won the Portuguese top-flight with Benfica while Lage's progressive style of management and the way he can take young players forward is admirable.
Lage could also be highly beneficial in landing one of Wolves’ long-standing targets; Carlos Vinicius.
The Benfica striker spent the campaign on loan at Tottenham where he played just nine times in the Premier League.
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Spurs had an option to buy the Brazilian this summer but it’s unlikely they’ll take up that opportunity.
Wolves are queuing up for his signature and could finally sign him this summer. They had a bid rejected last January and were knocked back again before he joined the Lilywhites.
It’s now thought he could cost the Midlands outfit around €25m to €30m (£21m-£26m).
If that goes through then he could form a simply magical partnership with Lage. The duo worked together at Benfica and it’s under the Portuguese manager that Vinicius thrived.
In 2019/20, the striker played 41 times with Lage at the helm, scoring 22 goals and providing a further 12 assists for his teammates.
It was a marvellous campaign for a player who seemed to love playing under the Wolves-linked head coach.
Thus, if the pair link up in the Midlands next season, they should hit the ground running. Vinicius knows how Lage works and the manager knows how to get the best from him.
With Willian Jose heading back to Real Sociedad, signing another forward certainly makes sense.
Speaking last year, Jose Gomes, his former manager at Rio Ave, said: "He's a powerful player, and very intelligent. He is someone who always gets himself into goalscoring positions."
That’s already an improvement on Jose who only scored one goal in the Midlands, very rarely getting himself into areas he could score from.
Vinicius and Lage is a mouth-watering combination for Jeff Shi to consider.