With Orlando Pirates starlet Relebohile Mofokeng heavily linked with a move to Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers, we analysed the current state of the West Midlands club and if it is the right place for the young attacker to fulfil his potential.
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Earlier this week, Buccaneers head coach Jose Riveiro revealed that the teenage sensation was in the United Kingdom for a trial with the English outfit. Soccer Laduma exclusively went on to reveal that Wolves have been extremely impressed with the prodigious young talent and are keen on bringing him on board. But is the English top division club currently in the right state to nurture such a player?
The money involved in the Premier League is a poisoned chalice of sorts, because while mid-table teams are able to price out a lot of bigger European clubs for budding talent, it also put those young players under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver immediately because relegation could mean the club losing drastic amounts of money.
A lot of young players end up never reaching their full potential because clubs get embroiled in relegation battles and often depend on experience to bail them out, making it hard for certain prospects to re-establish themselves in the team.
This is a concern of ours as Mofokeng looks likely to embark on his Wolves journey, because they were initially tipped by some to be set to be in the thick of a relegation dog fight. Financial fair play restrictions coupled with the loss of some prominent players during the off-season, and the Midlands club was being regarded as one of the favourites to go down to the EFL Championship this season.
Gary O'Neil replacing Julen Lopetegui as first-team manager five days before the league commenced didn't help their case, but while they did not have the best of starts to the season, the Englishman has led his side to a three-game unbeaten run in the Premier League going into their fixture against Bournemouth this weekend. Coincidentally, the Cherries are the club O'Neil last coached before arriving at Molineux Stadium, and even with a dark cloud hovering over his head when he was appointed as boss in the south coast last season, he managed to turn it around and have a good campaign with at the Vitality Stadium, and even received shouts for Manager of the Season.
Following a jittery start to the 40-year-old tactician's life at Wolves, they now seem to be playing more cohesively. Even when they were losing at the start of the season, they were competitive for the most part, but now they are looking like they are finding their feet, despite their lack of a top No. 9-type striker, with the likes of Pedro Neto and Hee-chan Hwang currently in fine form.
Wing play seems to be what O'Neil has relied on so far this season, having played the aforementioned Portuguese and South Korean on either side of the attack. This will bode for Mofokeng given what he has been able to do so far on the left wing for the Sea Robbers in South Africa.
Wolves are not the youngest side in the Premier League, but perhaps that is another good thing for the young attacker, coming into a relatively experienced dressing room.
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The early signs are that O'Neil has the potential to emulate what he did with Bournemouth last season by creating a stable environment with Wolves, which will be important for somebody like Mofokeng to settle. There are perhaps more conducive Premier League clubs to go to for young players, but if the 18-year-old can replicate the form he showed when he first broke into the Pirates first team, then he can certainly become a top talent in England's premier division.
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