Why Derby County over Wolves could be the ideal destination for Nelson Oliveira
Norwich City are looking to further trim their wage costs and this month, are once again listening to bids for Portuguese striker Nelson Oliveira. The Canaries turned down a £10million offer for Oliveira last summer when Swansea City made a bid on transfer deadline day, though things may not be left so late this time.
Derby County have already shown their hand with a £8million offer for Oliveira, though Norwich will naturally look to leverage that against other potential offers from the likes of Fulham and Wolves.
Derby, much like Leeds United and Fulham, have been continually looking for a proper central striker to complete their squad and become confirmed promotion candidates. Despite the success of Sessegnon, Piazon, Cairney and Aluko, Fulham, last season, always looked as though they were missing something in the centre-forward role with on-loan Chris Martin not quite doing the business.
Derby now have Martin back and he is challenging a very similar player in David Nugent for the central striker position, though despite some great approach play and a strong squad, the No.9 role remains essentially unfilled for Gary Rowett.
Any striker with a record like Oliveira’s – 18 goals in 49 games – would go straight into the Rams line-up and stay there permanently.
Rowett needs this type of player at his disposal and in fact, Oliveira is only getting better, meaning that with his natural improvement and Derby’s strong level of support from midfield, he could be rather prolific at Pride Park. In Wolverhampton Wanderers’ case, they play only one upfront of course and already have one of the league’s top strikers in Leo Bonatini, supported from deep by Diogo Jota, Helder Costa and Ivan Cavaleiro.
They are looking to make him a permanent signing as soon as they can but even if that is not a possibility, they have the money and the pull to bring in another top striker before kicking off their Premier League season next August, which would leave Oliveira without much in the way of game time.
Even now, Wolves have already signed Valencia man Rafa Mir as cover for Bonatini this season so it would seem that Oliveira would simply be a squad player in an ever growing and ever impressive Wolves roster. So, assuming that a deal isn’t done with Fulham and that Wolves can either tie down Bonatini or spend big on someone new, Derby looks like the obvious destination.
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