This summer, all Wolves eyes were on Ruben Neves. With just a year left on his contract, the Portuguese midfielder had collective blood pressures on the rise at mid-table prone Molineux after publicly claiming he wanted to play Champions League football.
Acceptance of their captain’s departure came gradually, yet Neves’ eventual move to the money pit of Saudi Arabia instead of the more assumed Barcelona – likely sparked frustration among the fanbase. European aspirations were simply traded away for dollar signs. That said, while Neves might’ve left on a relatively sour note – it’s hard to forget the times when the former Porto man was truly on song in the West Midlands.
Winding the clock back even further, Football FanCast takes a look back at Ruben Neves’ Wolves debut and the team around him. So, let’s look back to 5th August 2017 – where new boss Nuno Espirito Santo rolled out his opening day line-up as Wolverhampton Wanderers aimed to get back to the Premier League for the first time since 2011/12.
In a game that Wolves eventually won 1-0, Espirito Santo went for a five-man defence against a tricky Middlesbrough side freshly relegated from the Premier League. Here’s the XI, of which seven were summer acquisitions, and a little bit about where each of the players are now.
John Ruddy
Goalkeeper
Between the sticks back on this opening day, John Ruddy had just made the switch from Norwich City. Over seven years there, he’d amassed a great 242 appearances as well as a reputation for fine shot-stopping. All in all, with the Canaries, Ruddy kept 60 clean sheets, got promoted twice – and would repeat this trend with Wolves in this very term as the Old Gold marched to the title.
At Wolves, Ruddy would tot up 72 appearances and keep 36 clean sheets before moving to Birmingham City in 2022, where he still resides.
Barry Douglas
Left wing-back
Contrary to his goalkeeper’s previous loyalty to one club, fellow new signing Barry Douglas was a relative journeyman up to this point. Following formative spells with Queen’s Park and Dundee United in his native Scotland, the left-back went to Poland with Lech Poznan between 2013 and 2016. After that, he went to Turkey with Konyaspor before settling with Wolves for a term in 2017/18.
Although he helped them get automatic promotion, he couldn’t stay still and moved on to Leeds, Blackburn Rovers and then back to Lech Poznan in 2021, where he remains to this day.
Willy Boly
Centre-back
Arriving on loan from his manager’s old club, Porto, Willy Boly didn’t take long to become a fan favourite at Molineux. A towering and physical defender, Boly got his debut in this game against Middlesbrough before eventually scoring his first goal in against Norwich City in late October. He played 37 games on loan at Wolves before all parties involved ensured the big man stayed on a permanent deal.
He plied his trade with Wolves for another three years and earned international call-ups for Cote d’Ivoire before moving to current club Nottingham Forest in September 2022.
Conor Coady
Centre-back
It’s fair to say that Conor Coady and Wolves have been a near-synonymous partnership in recent years. Clearly from his formative career steps, the defender had the ability and leadership to impact any XI he was in. Any, except, his first club, Liverpool. After a successful loan spell with Sheffield United in 2013/14 and another solid year at Huddersfield Town, Coady had his taste for leading a group without necessarily finding the right place to lay his hat.
Wolverhampton was an ideal match in 2015, and over 300 appearances later, the centre-back had certainly made his mark before departing for Leicester City in July. Poignantly before leaving, Coady scored the only goal in Wolves’ 1,000th top-flight win.
Roderick Miranda
Centre-back
Although his stint at Wolves didn’t see a lot of game time with a mere 17 league appearances, Roderick Miranda was on the books for four years. The Portuguese defender signed for Espirito Santo in 2017 after impressing with Rio Ave. However, he gradually fell out of favour and ended up on loan moves to Olympiacos and Famalicao before leaving Molineux by mutual consent in 2021.
Since then, Miranda briefly played for Turkish side Gaziantep, but can now be found in Australia with Melbourne Victory.
Matt Doherty
Right wing-back
Matt Doherty rounds off this XI’s defenders at the right wing-back position, and he’s a player whose career path took a sudden surge upwards for a brief spell.
Back in 2017, Doherty had already been at Wolves for ten years. Part of the furniture since developing in the youth ranks, the Irishman’s excellence on the right played a big part in Wolves not only staying in the Premier League since they re-emerged in 2018/19, but also their League One title back in 2013/14. Such was the case, that after 302 appearances in all competitions, he joined Tottenham in 2020 for £13.4m.
While outings in Spurs white were relatively hit-and-miss and dampened by an MCL injury in 2022, Atletico Madrid still took a chance on Doherty. Spurs terminated his contract and off he went. However, after just two appearances for Diego Simeone’s side, he came back to England and re-joined Wolves this summer for free. A loyal servant, for nothing? Nicely done, Wolves…
Ruben Neves
Defensive midfielder
Of course, the titular character in this article – 20-year-old Ruben Neves came into this game fresh from Portugal. He was the division’s record signing at the time, as Wolves picked up the high-flying prospect for £15.8m, and that season, he truly hit the ground running, showing all the tenacious early signs of a defensive midfielder that was soon to be on the radar of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Now, some could say he only scored six goals and got one assist – but from the deeper role, that’s not bad at all. Not bad, especially when you consider this strike against Derby County, which was very much a typical Neves goal…
Romain Saiss
Defensive midfielder
Lining up alongside the soon-to-be imperious Neves was French-born Morocco international Romain Saiss. Adept defensively, as well as chipping in with the odd aerial presence at set pieces, this enforcer played in midfield and at centre-back following his arrival from Angers in 2016. In the next six years, Saiss became an established Premier League battler, charting 110 league appearances with nine goals – out of 206 all-competition outings.
In 2022, Saiss moved on to Besiktas before a recent foray further east with Qatar’s Al-Sadd and the Saudi Arabia’s Al-Shabab. Qatar is perhaps where Saiss’ best recent memories lie, after brave performances helped inspire Morocco to a historic World Cup semi-final: a run which left Ruben and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in their wake.
Diogo Jota
Left-forward
Individually the most successful player out of this fledgling Wolves side, Diogo Jota has seen his career go from strength to strength since leaving the West Midlands. Back in 2017, this start against Middlesbrough came as his first game on a season-long loan from Atletico Madrid.
It’s safe to say that the 17 goals in 44 Championship matches (fifth in the league’s scoring charts) played a huge part in the side’s promotion. Wolves made the deal permanent for the ex-Pacos de Ferreira man for a reported €14m before he transferred his ability to two great seasons in the Premier League that brought another 16 goals in 67 games. In his first season, the then-22-year-old netted nine and assisted five in 33, before his second term saw seven goals in 34.
More impressive was his Europa League tally. Diogo notched six goals in eight games as Wolves reached the quarter-finals before defeat at the hands of Europa League kings Sevilla.
Diogo may have been gutted, but it wasn’t to be the final time the ever-developing dynamo would experience European football. Liverpool came knocking in 2020, and the Portuguese has flown into the hearts of all in red. His 47 goals in 126 all-competition matches since 2020 has had Scousers on strings with an FA Cup and EFL Cup to boot.
Leo Bonatini
Centre-forward
Leo Bonatini was, of course, the sole scorer back in 2017’s 1-0 opening-day win over Middlesbrough. With a fine finish past Darren Randolph, the 23-year-old striker, on loan from Al-Hilal, had pounced on a sloppy pass and ultimately hinted at what kind of season he was going to enjoy poaching in the Championship. In his first term, Bonatini scored 12 goals in 43 games. This, paired with Jota’s exciting exploits, kept Wolves flying in the right direction.
After promotion from the second tier, Bonatini struggled for game time at Wolves, as Raul Jimenez coming in up top eventually showed the gulf in class between the Premier League and Championship. Although Bonatini had made his move to Molineux permanent, he was sent out on unsuccessful loans to Nottingham Forest and Vitoria Guimaraes before affiliate club Grasshopper in Switzerland brought him back in the goals between 2020 and 2022. In this two-year loan, he scored a goal every three games. However, it wasn’t enough to impress Wolves, and the 29-year-old now finds himself enjoying similar form with Atletico San Luis in Mexico.
Bright Enobakhare
Right-forward
The last place in this XI comes with Nigerian Bright Enobakhare, and he’s likely one of the most obscure names in this feature. Currently plying his trade in the veritable retirement money-grab that is Qatar’s second division, he’s still only 25.
Enobakhare started at Wolves as a great prospect, yet the electric winger couldn’t quite match his development to that of the soon-to-be Premier League side around him. Although intermittently finding goals with Wolves’ U21s side, he couldn’t keep up in the first team, even after multiple loan moves that included stints at Kilmarnock, Coventry City and Wigan Athletic. On his return from the latter, Bright’s potential had dimmed and Wolves released him by mutual consent.
AEK Athens signed the Nigerian, yet he jumped around several clubs, never really finding his feet. His recent resume sounds like an impossible quiz question. If faced with the likes of AEK Athens, East Bengal, Coventry City, Hapoel Jerusalem, Rukh Lviv and now Al-Bidda, and someone told you to guess the player, you wouldn’t have a clue (until now). There’s still time for the 25-year-old to come good, and maybe eventually he can emulate the form of his partner Jota on the other wing of this Wolves XI from 2017.
