Why signing Martin Odegaard from would be a massive coup for Wolves

According to the Daily Mail, Wolverhampton Wanderers are closely monitoring the performances of Real Madrid starlet Martin Odegaard, with manager Nuno Espirito Santo keen to bring the 20-year-old to Molineux during the January transfer window. 

The Norwegian prodigy, who is currently on loan at fellow La Liga side Real Sociedad, has set the stage on fire with some scintillating performances in the opening stages of the campaign and his rich vein of form hasn’t eluded the eyes of Wolves, who have sent scouts to keep tabs on the attacking midfielder. 

Odegaard, who joined Real Madrid from Norwegian side Stromgodset back in 2015 as a 16-year-old, was virtually written off by the fans at the Santiago Bernabeu after struggling to force his way through into the Los Blancos’ senior side, but he has silenced his critics with some match-winning displays on his loan spell this term. 

The 20-year-old has already racked up 2 goals and an assist in 6 La Liga outings this season, producing man-of-the-match displays in Real Sociedad’s victories over Mallorca and Atletico Madrid. However, it was his delicious jaw-dropping assist in the 3-0 victory over Alaves this week that had the fans drooling over his brilliance. 

Having enjoyed a couple of fruitful loan spells at SC Heerenveen and Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie over the past two seasons, Odegaard has already laid down a marker in the La Liga with his consistently impressive performances early in the ongoing campaign.

To that end, a move to the Premier League doesn’t seem beyond the realms of possibility, with Wolves showing a lot of interest.

As per the report, Real Madrid are open to selling him in January or next summer for a fee of around £20 million, a sum which should not be a big problem for Wolves, given the financial backing of the ambitious Fosun Group.

Putting things into perspective, it is pretty easy to see that any deal for Martin Odegaard in January would be a massive coup for Wolves, who have endured a bit of an indifferent start to the season by their standards. 

The 20-year-old, who made his senior international debut for Norway at the tender age of 15, is right up there with the best young talents in Europe and Wolves plotting a swoop for him is a clear indication of the club’s ambitions moving forward under Nuno Santo. 

Wolves splashed the cash on promising youngsters like Pedro Neto, Bruno Jordao and Patrick Cutrone this summer but lack of an energetic playmaker has come back to haunt them. 

Although Nuno Santo doesn’t depend too much on an out-and-out playmaker in his counter-attacking philosophy, Wolves have often struggled to create enough chances due to lack of creativity further up the pitch, a problem which could be sorted out with a move for Odegaard. 

With Joao Moutinho nearing his twilight, Ruben Neves more of a defensive midfielder and Morgan Gibbs-White not quite the finished article just yet, Wolves are in desperate need of a quality playmaker to add that X-Factor to their attack and Odegaard certainly looks like the real deal. 

The 20-year-old still has plenty of room for improvement and Wolves will be hoping for him to make a big impact in the Premier League in the years to come. There is a reason why he is one of the hottest young talents on the planet and Wolves should be wise enough to view him as an excellent long-term investment. 

Blessed with the innate ability and natural finesse to create space in the final third, the vision to rip defences apart and the trickery to bully the defenders, Odegaard has all the makings of evolving into a world-class attacking midfielder, while his versatility to play in multiple positions should make him a tailor-made fit for Nuno Santo’s system. 

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With that in mind, Wolves making a move for Martin Odegaard would make perfect sense for a number of reasons and the club’s links with the 20-year-old should be enough to get the fans off their feet.