Wolverhampton Wanderers are a prime example of how quickly things can change in football with the club now in 13th position in the Premier League table following a five-match unbeaten streak.
Prior to Gary O’Neil’s arrival, the Old Gold were in freefall, especially across the summer as the club were hit with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and sold some of their star names, including Ruben Neves and Matheus Nunes, to balance the books.
Subsequently, O’Neil was presented with a cash-strapped squad and many envisaged Wolves struggling towards the bottom, however, the Englishman has masterminded a remarkable turnaround.
The feel-good factor around Molineux is currently at the best it has been since Nuno Espirito Santo was in charge of the club and, although his spell in the Midlands was largely successful having qualified for the Europa League and brought in an abundance of Portuguese stars, including Neves, Rui Patricio, Joao Moutinho and Diogo Jota, he was also presented with challenges.
One of those was justifying the large sums of money spent on disappointing talent and while the club-record £35.6m acquisition of Fabio Silva may go down as the worst of the lot, Patrick Cutrone’s arrival in 2019 certainly runs him close.
The fee Wolves paid for Patrick Cutrone
In the summer of 2019, Wolves flexed their financial muscles on several stars and one of those brought in was AC Milan striker Patrick Cutrone for a deal worth up to £23m.
|
Wolves biggest transfer expenditure in the summer of 2019 |
Fee (via Transfermarkt & Sky Sports) |
|---|---|
|
Raul Jimenez (Benfica) |
£33m |
|
Patrick Cutrone (AC Milan) |
£23m |
|
Daniel Podence (Olympiacos) |
£17m |
|
Pedro Neto (Lazio) |
£15.6m |
|
Leander Dendoncker (Anderlecht) |
£12m |
The 21-year-old ace was regarded as the next Italian prodigy and this was accentuated further by the praise directed towards him.
Gennaro Gattuso, who was Milan’s manager at the time, likened him to Rossoneri legend Filippo Inzaghi after his brace against SPAL in February 2018.
During his full breakout year in the 2017/18 campaign, Cutrone was threatening to deliver on the hype surrounding his talents as he fired in ten goals and four assists in 28 Serie A appearances, including six goal contributions in nine Europa League outings that term.
He was even lauded by Gattuso for his “venom” in front of goal during that season and although his form tailed off after that, scoring just nine times in 43 matches for Milan, this did not stop Wolves from snapping him up.
Patrick Cutrone bled Wolves dry financially
If Wolves were expecting Cutrone to rediscover his killer instinct in front of goal that saw him rise to stardom in Italy, unfortunately, Nuno Santo would be left disappointed with how the move turned out.
In 23 appearances across two seasons at the club, the 6-foot marksman only notched up three goals, and considering he was reportedly the club’s fourth-highest earner on £62k-per-week, pocketing more than the likes of Diogo Jota, Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez, the Italian seriously bled the club dry.
Over those two years, he only spent around seven months and one week at the club and not on loan elsewhere, which meant that he earned around 29 weeks’ worth of those £62k-per-week wages, with it unclear as to how the wage split worked between Wolves and his loan clubs.
From the £23m expenditure to bring him to the Midlands to the £1.8m he reportedly collected in wages during those 29 weeks, Wolves spent an eye-watering total of £24.8m to maintain Cutrone during his two seasons at the club, one of which was spent on loan at La Liga side Valencia.
When you divide that total that the Old Gold threw away to accommodate the Italian by what he gave back in goals, it works out that the forward cost the club a whopping £8.3m per goal.
While Wolves may have thought that they struck gold with the signing of Cutrone, his spell turned into a nightmare, departing the club in 2022 to join hometown club Como in Serie B, which further emphasises the 25-year-old flop’s rapid downfall.