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Adama Traore very happy to be part of Wolves, says Nuno

Nuno Espirito Santo insists winger Adama Traore is ‘clearly’ happy to be at Wolves as the winger gets ready to sign a new contract.

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Nuno, as well as committing his own future to the club by signing a fresh three-year deal, has tied down key players Conor Coady and Raul Jimenez recently.

Traore is set to follow suit soon, too, and Nuno – whose side travel to Leeds on Monday night (8pm) – said on the situation: “What I can say about this is Adama is delighted to be here.

“You can see how happy he’s been in training just by seeing us be together again.

“Things will happen naturally. Speculation around our players doesn’t bother us.

“We know what we have to do. First of all, you have to be happy where you are, and he clearly is.”

Traore is hoping to start at Elland Road after featuring three times while away with Spain.

The 24-year-old was handed his debut against Portugal and also came off the bench against Switzerland before being included from the off against Ukraine.

On if he watched those games and was proud of Traore, Nuno said: “I watch all the matches our players are involved in – some of them live, some of them I record and watch all the minutes our players play.

“I was delighted and really happy for Adama because he made his debut and he made his debut as a starter, so that shows the progress and the impact Adama had.

“I was delighted with all of our internationals – Daniel Podence made his debut for Portugal, Conor Coady scored for England.

“Some players didn’t have so many minutes as we would have wished because the international coaches made different decisions.

“I’m happy but at the same time worried and tremendously proud at the amount of international players we have at Wolves.

“We must feel proud as a squad and as a club because representing your national team is the best of the best in your own country so that says enough.

“It says a lot about the quality and the talent of the players we have, and the hard work that we put in.

“When we arrived we didn’t have so many internationals so the progression and the commitment of this group makes me hugely proud.”

Skipper Coady, as alluded to by Nuno, was another who enjoyed a fruitful international break.

The centre-half scored and donned the armband for the final half an hour for England against Wales and also impressed against Denmark.

Coady’s goal was his first from open play since netting against Crawley in the League Cup in 2016, while his only strike under Nuno was from the penalty spot at Bolton in 2018.

Nuno was shocked by the goal as well, as he said: “It surprised me a lot.

“I was not expecting that at all, and I don’t think even he expected it either.

“But I’m delighted not only for his goal and in his performance, because you could see Conor was there to help the England national team, clearly he was committed to it and he enjoys it so much.

“I think it’s easy to like Conor because he’s a fantastic human being, a fantastic man and a fantastic professional.”

Coady – who has barely passed the halfway line for Wolves in recent years – was regularly popping up in the box for the Three Lions.

Nuno, though, will stick to keeping him back for set-pieces.

“For now, I don’t see him coming up for our corners,” he added.

“But you never know – maybe if we’re desperate in one moment, we could send him up, but for now, Gareth Southgate is taking good advantage of it.”