Offers expected - Wolves, Sunderland and Everton in six-horse race for £6m Premier League stalwart

Wolverhampton Wanderers are among half a dozen Premier League clubs interested in signing a soon-to-be out-of-contract defender.

The Old Gold’s main focus in the transfer market is to replace star men Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri after their exits for Manchester United and Manchester City, but that doesn’t mean there’s no focus whatsoever on other positions. Wolves have many areas to address, after all, with manager Vitor Pereira eager to build on the momentum he started during the second half of last campaign.

One position that will likely need strengthening is right wing-back as Nelson Semedo is still yet to put pen to paper on a new contract. The captain has been offered a generous four-year deal but he’s yet to decide what he wants to do. Semedo has even filmed a farewell video on the Molineux pitch to be used if he does choose to leave, however no final decision has been made just yet.

Wolves, knowing how important Semedo and wing-backs in general are to their structure, are on the lookout for possible replacements. The likes of Kyle Walker-Peters and Trai Hume have been touted as potential options but there’s now another, new player who has been linked.

Football Insider reports Wolves are one of six clubs racing to sign West Ham United’s Vladimir Coufal this summer. The 55-time Czech Republic international will be a free agent on July 1 as his contract expires at the end of this month - just like Semedo - and he hasn’t signed new terms.

Before West Ham signed Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Man Utd last summer, Coufal was the club’s first-choice right-back for four successive Premier League seasons. The 32-year-old’s game time dwindled last time due to Wan-Bissaka’s emergence as one of the club’s most in-form players, but he still played his part with 25 appearances across all competitions.

Coufal is also a Europa Conference League winner as he accumulated 786 minutes throughout West Ham’s historic 2022/23 campaign on the nearby continent. The right-back was one of eight Hammers to play the full 90 minutes in the final against Fiorentina, too. It’s safe to say the £6 million fee paid to sign him was well worth it.

Wolves must hurry to sign West Ham star

Given Coufal’s Premier League pedigree and experience, it’s no wonder Wolves are keen, and, if the interest is strong enough, a formal offer could soon follow. Wanderers may have to hurry if they do want to sign the Czech, however, as the Football Insider report details that Everton, Fulham, Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland are also in the race.

All five of those clubs could offer similar game time assurances that Wolves can. Everton’s Nathan Patterson perhaps isn’t quite ready to be the first choice, Fulham could do with a decent option to rotate in for the injury-prone Timothy Castagne, Leeds are eager to strengthen upon their return to the top flight, Burnley are in the same boat, and Sunderland could lose Hume in the coming months.

It could be quite the fight for Coufal’s services, then, so Wolves must make a decision quickly. That’s tough to do when Semedo is yet to communicate his own choice, so the Old Gold could really do with some direction sooner rather than later.

Read on: Wolves now have a clear path to signing a want-away Liverpool gem.