Nelson Semedo is still a free agent – what will his Wolves legacy be?

New York Times

12 hours ago

Nelson Semedo remains a free agent. As long as that remains the case, there is a theoretical chance he could re-sign for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
But no one at the club expects the 31-year-old to return. Instead, Wolves have been preparing for life without the man who ended last season as their influential captain.
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Wolves, who offered Semedo a four-year contract towards the end of last season, have made no firm comment on the right-back's future out of respect for his service since joining in 2020.
They expect, though, that in the coming weeks, Semedo will announce that he has signed a contract elsewhere. In the meantime, Wolves are looking hard for replacements.
That means the time is fast approaching to consider Semedo's legacy at Molineux. It is a complicated task and it is instructive to look back two years to the time when his initial three-year contract expired.
In the summer of 2023, there was a genuine debate at Wolves about whether to activate an option to keep Semedo for a further two years.
In the end, the club decided to trigger the clause but the fact they considered allowing him to leave tells the story of his early time in the Premier League.
There was pressure from day one, due to the fee — an initial £27.5million ($37m) from Barcelona — and the fact that he was bought to replace Matt Doherty, who had been a popular and key player in Wolves' successes under Nuno Espirito Santo.
To begin with, Wolves fans were less than convinced that the significant net outlay — they recouped around half of Semedo's transfer fee by selling Doherty to Tottenham Hotspur — had brought them an upgrade.
As Nuno attempted to transition from his successful 3-4-3 system to play a four-man defence, Semedo struggled to handle the defensive demands of playing at right-back in the Premier League.
When Wolves reverted to playing him as a wing-back outside a three-man defence, it gave Semedo more scope to use his athleticism and fitness, but recurring defensive errors and a lack of precision in attacking areas meant his effectiveness was limited.
His weakest season was his third, which coincided with the dismal start to the campaign under Bruno Lage, followed by a brief spell under Julen Lopetegui.
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So when decision time arrived at the end of that campaign, it was not a straightforward call. On one hand, Semedo still had a good reputation around Europe and triggering the option in his contract protected his resale value. On the other hand, the Portugal international was one of the club's highest earners.
The decision to keep him was rewarded with his best two campaigns in Wolves colours, under Gary O'Neil and then Vitor Pereira.
Semedo showed his experience, making fewer defensive lapses and posing a greater threat in attack.
The biggest impact, however, came out of fans' view. As Pereira arrived with the task of rebuilding a crumbling team, with Matheus Cunha's attitude being increasingly questioned and former captain Mario Lemina making clear his desire to leave, Semedo became the mortar that helped hold it together.
One of O'Neil's last significant acts at Wolves before being sacked in December 2024 was to appoint Semedo as captain. When Pereira took over, Semedo kept the armband and was credited with galvanising a dressing room that could easily have been shattered following a poor run of results.
His performances remained solid if unspectacular, and his influence on the team grew each week.
In his five years at Wolves, Semedo was known as solid, ultra-professional and low-maintenance. In his final five months, he was regarded as almost inspirational.
Still, it now feels like an official parting of the ways is just a matter of time.
In the unlikely event that Semedo's move away from Wolves falls through and he returns to Molineux asking to sign the contract that has been on the table for months, the club would need to consider the optics of allowing a player to re-sign essentially because he cannot do better elsewhere.
There is no doubt that Semedo enjoyed his time at Wolves and left at the end of last season on excellent terms but the club believe he had made up his mind that his future lies elsewhere.
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To present a change of heart as anything other than a backup plan from Semedo would be a challenge — but it is not a quandary Wolves expect to be presented with.
Despite his long influence, he is unlikely to enter the hall of fame from Wolves' Fosun era, but he will be remembered as a player who, from difficult beginnings, built an excellent reputation with fans and colleagues alike.