Why Wolves would be wise to return for Paulinho

According to Record (h/t Birmingham Live), Paulinho spoke about interest from Wolves and how he wants to play in England. A summer move was expected to develop but it never came to reality. Nonetheless, Wolves are looking to bring in another striker after the injury to Raul Jimenez.

Profile

Paulinho is a 28-year-old Portuguese forward who plays for SC Braga. He started his youth career at Santa Maria in 2001. After 9 years in the youth setup, he broke into the first-team.

In 2012, he moved to Trofense and had a decent spell there, making 38 appearances and scoring 11 goals. A year later, he joined Gil Vicente, where he enjoyed a decent spell.

It was only after he moved to SC Braga that his full potential was on display. In 147 games so far for the Portuguese outfit, he has scored 62 goals and 22 assists (h/t Transfermarkt). He recently made his debut for the Portugal senior team and scored 2 goals against Andorra.

Wolves need Paulinho at this stage

Wolves were hit hard with the injury to their leading forward Raul Jimenez. The Mexican suffered a fractured skull after a collision of heads with David Luiz. Since then, he has had surgery and is on his way to recovery. However, there is still no clear idea of when he is likely to return.

While others like Daniel Podence and Pedro Neto have stepped up in his absence, there does remain a huge deficit. Fabio Silva was signed in the summer but the need of an experienced man up front is evident. Silva is too young to lead the line at this stage of his career.

The club needs another experienced striker and Paulinho should be the option they revisit. The Braga man has been in scintillating form over the last couple of seasons. Paulinho does fit the bill of a player who can play sporadically and come off the bench to chip in with a goal.

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He enjoyed a prolific 2019/20 campaign with Braga, scoring 25 goals in 48 matches and would bolster Wolves’ attack further. He is a very experienced player in the Liga NOS and given he is Portuguese, it would be a no-brainer for Wolves to go for him. The club have built a reputation of signing Portuguese players over the last couple of seasons.