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Wolverhampton Wanderers news: What Julen Lopetegui said about Ruben Neves amidst transfer speculation?

With supporters already looking ahead to the next season, speculations have begun to circulate about Ruben Neves’ future.

By Karthik Raman | May 11, 2023 | 3 Min Read

Wolverhampton Wanderers have done incredibly well of late to secure their Premier League status for another season. There were genuine relegation fear among the club’s supporters during a period in the first half of the campaign. In came Julen Lopetegui and things have changed drastically since then. Their progression has been immense this season that Wolves have guaranteed their Premier League safety with three games to go.

With supporters already looking ahead to the next season, speculations have begun to circulate about Ruben Neves’ future. It is another summer where the Portuguese midfielder is being linked with a variety of clubs. However, it is unclear if Julen Lopetegui would be willing to let go of his star midfielder. In fact, the pair have a history together. When Lopetegui was at Porto he had coached the up-and-coming Neves back in the day.

Julen Lopetegui only had good words to describe the Wolves’ captain and stated that he enjoys working with him. “He started playing with me when he was 17-years-old, I remember when I finalised my work in Porto I told him ‘I would like to manage you at 25-year-old and it’s real, I have enjoyed working with him. He’s a very good player, but above all, he’s a very good guy. He has a big commitment with the club, he is a good example – of course we will see what will happen in the future for all of us,” Lopetegui told Sky Sports News.

I believed we could change the situation: Julen Lopetegui

The manager then spoke about how big an achievement it was to keep Wolves in the Premier League for another season. “I think it’s a very big success for the club, for the players and for the fans. The most important thing was to believe. I believed we could change the situation, knowing maybe it’s a big risk,” he elaborated.

“A lot of people called me saying: ‘You are crazy, you don’t need to go to the bottom of the Premier League,’ but in this moment, my feeling was I believed. I feel it was a challenge for me as a coach, I like the hard challenges and that’s why I’m a coach, our life is not easy in a lot of moments. For me to come to another country, another league – the best league in the world undoubtedly – in a very dangerous situation, it was a challenge.”

‘It is the most important achievement as a coach’

Julen Lopetegui has experience of winning the Europa League with Sevilla. He also had a memorable career as a player. Speaking about where this success will be among his other achievements, the manager said, “It is the most important achievement as a coach. I was lucky to win trophies, I won the Europa League, I was in the Champions League consecutive times with Sevilla but this was a special achievement for the difficulties we had.”

“I am not used to fighting out of relegation, that’s why for me it was a challenge – I had to change some things in my mind but to adapt is important in life and football. We had two very good supports, one was the commitment of the players and one is the commitment of the fans, they understood we need them always, above all in the bad moments and I think this has been key to achieve our aim.”