9 months ago
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Gary O’Neil is adamant Wolves will try to cling on to Arsenal and Tottenham target Pedro Neto this summer despite previous suggestions they will not stand in the way of a big-money transfer.
The 23-year-old enjoyed another excellent performance against Spurs on Saturday, setting up the visitors’ winner in north London with a blistering run and neat cut back for Joao Gomes – and surely passed any potential audition with flying colours.
Neto now has two goals and nine assists in just 16 Premier League appearances this season, a goal contribution every 120 minutes.
It was suggested last week that Wolves would be prepared to cash in on Neto at the end of the campaign to ease financial fair play worries, with a figure in excess of £53million enough to land the Portuguese winger.
But O’Neil has now shut down any suggestion that Wolves are already bracing themselves for Neto’s exit and insists they will do everything to try and keep him.
Speaking about the youngster after his starring role against Spurs, O’Neil said: ‘I think his strengths are incredibly strong. Obviously his athleticism and his pace are excellent, his quality on the ball – when he’s dribbling or when he’s trying to find a pass at the end of it – is excellent.
‘I’m still working really hard on improving certain bits of him that I think he needs to improve, in my opinion.
‘He knows that, we’ve spoken about it already, about how much he can do for the team, out of possession stuff and still some understanding with the ball.
‘So he knows that we want to improve him. I think it would be really lazy of me to say, “Oh he’s fantastic, let’s just let him get on with it and we’ll see how well he does”.
‘I still want to push him and get him as close to perfect as a wide player as we can.
‘And I’ve been asked a few times this week about the summer already and I’m not interested in discussing Pedro Neto leaving the football club.
‘He’s a fantastic player that we spent a lot of money on, that we work very hard on, and as far as I’m concerned we don’t want to lose our best players.
‘So we have a long way to go yet this season and then hopefully he stays with us and we can keep pushing towards the top half of the table.’
Asked before the match about claims Wolves had already named their price for Neto, O’Neil said: ‘I saw some of the stuff out there and none of that came from me or the club.
‘There will be rumours circulating around a lot of our players hopefully because of the work they’re doing. But the club’s stance will be decided in the summer on who we think we can lose – whether that’s anybody – and what the price needs to be.’
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