With Wolves manager Bruno Lage previously sharing his need for the Midlands club to bring in a new centre-back during the current January transfer, it seems as though they can forget about signing one potential candidate that could have ticked all the right boxes for Lage.

What's the news?

Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, transfer insider Pete O'Rourke had this to say on Wolves' chances of signing Lille defender Sven Botman, who the club were linked with during the previous summer transfer window.

He said: "They were interested in Sven Botman last summer but weren't able to sign him. Obviously, his price tag has gone up, so he seems a bit of an unrealistic target right now."

Since joining Lille back in the 2020 summer transfer window from Ajax after working his way through the Dutch side's youth ranks, the 22-year-old has gone on to make 66 appearances across all competitions, chipping in with two goals and two assists along the way.

Fans will be gutted

As well as Lage being disappointed at having a potential centre-back option such as Botman becoming an unlikely signing for the Old Gold from a financial point of view, the fans at Molineux will surely be disappointed by this latest claim and not seeing a young promising defender such as Botman join their club.

With the Dutchman racking up an average of 5.1 clearances per game for Lille in Ligue 1 this season, this would put him neck and neck with Romain Saiss at Wolves in the Premier League, showing he's capable of being a useful defensive asset.

Also, with Botman having made more blocks per game (1.1) than any other Lille player and more than any other Wolves player has this season, it could be worth the Old Gold finding out just what sort of money it would take to sign him and then see if they would be willing to pay it to satisfy Lage and please the fans.

Moving forward, if Botman is now an unrealistic target for Wolves, they should now be doing all they can to find a suitable centre-back option to come in and strengthen Lage's side at the back to help them continue their impressive defensive record of having kept eight clean sheets so far this season.

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