Wolverhampton Wanderers central midfielder Connor Ronan is attracting increasing interest ahead of the January transfer window.
What's the latest?
That's according to Matt Jackson, with Wolves' strategic player marketing manager revealing in a recent interview with Football Scotland that the Premier League side are leaving the 24-year-old's future down to him, suggesting that the club would be open to the midfielder leaving Molineux on a temporary or permanent basis in the winter market.
Regarding the Republic of Ireland international's future, Jackson said: "We're very much leaving it open to Connor and his agent at the moment. We think so highly of him and we feel that's how it should be.
"At the moment he's focused on our first team and he'll be looking to get involved with them in January and beyond. Of course, there's a lot of interest in him both loan and permanent interest but, again, we want to do what's best for Connor.
"He has experience on the continent with our connections with Grasshopper and he did very well in Scotland with Jim Goodwin at St. Mirren, so what works for Connor is what we'll be looking at."
Huge mistake
While it is true that Ronan has somewhat struggled to break into Wolves' first team so far this season - playing just 65 minutes of senior football thus far in 2022/23 - considering just how impressive the midfielder was for St. Mirren last time out, letting the 24-year-old to leave the club permanently this winter would very much appear to be a huge mistake.
Indeed, over his 27 Scottish Premiership appearances last term, the £870k-rated talent was in remarkable form going forwards, scoring seven goals, registering four assists and creating two big chances for his teammates, in addition to taking an average of 1.3 shots, making 1.6 key passes and completing 1.1 dribbles per game.
The £3k-per-week academy graduate also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, making an average of 1.2 tackles, 0.6 interceptions, 0.4 clearances and winning 2.4 duels per match, as well as playing an average of 3.4 long balls, 2.1 chipped passes and completing 31.6 total passes - at a success rate of 80% - per outing.
These returns saw the 24-year-old average an extremely impressive Sofascore match rating of 6.95, not only ranking him as St.Mirren's fifth-best performer in the top flight of Scottish football but also seeing the midfielder pick up the club's Player of the Year award last time out.
Rather unsurprisingly, Ronan's displays saw him earn a considerable amount of praise, none more so than from St. Mirren manager Stephen Robinson, who told Express Sport of the Irishman back in May:
"Connor is a truly excellent player. He's a real creative spark and I honestly could have done with about five of him! He's a very good trainer, he's a super goalscorer and he's got fantastic vision as well.
"You could play him as a deeper lying midfielder or a more attacking one, he's good enough to play all over the midfield. The best compliment I can give him is that he reminds me of Steven Davis, who I played alongside and then coached for Northern Ireland.
"Like Steven, he’s just so intelligent on and off the ball, a manager's dream really. We'd have loved to have kept him but I know there are a hell of a lot of clubs interested in him, unsurprisingly. I can actually see him playing abroad again and I'm sure wherever he goes he'll make an impact again."
As such, considering the fact that Wolves are struggling for goals this season - having scored a league-low of just eight in 2022/23 - it would appear as if the Old Gold are very much in need of a central midfielder with the forward-thinking ability of Ronan in the second half of the campaign - leading us to believe that parting with the 24-year-old would indeed be a huge mistake.