The inside track on Wolves' new signing Francisco Trincao

Heads were turned when Wolves – out of the blue – announced the signing of the 21-year-old Portuguese winger over the weekend.

He is coming in on a season-long loan from the Spanish giants, with the option to buy for around £25million next summer.

And Samuel Marsden, the Barcelona correspondent for ESPN, believes Wolves could have a gem on their hands.

Summing up Trincao’s time at the Nou Camp, Marsden said: “He was here for a year. In the second half of the season, he started playing less but it wasn’t really through anything he had done himself.

“A formation change went against him. Barca switched from the usual 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 around February and then stuck with it for the rest of the season.

“Before that, he was getting a lot of playing time and coming on in every game – and not just for the last five minutes, but half an hour or 40 minutes most games.

“Until that switch, we’d seen a player with a lot of talent, playing from the right and cutting in on his left.

“He had a couple of good moments – at Real Betis when Barca came back to win 3-2, scoring the winner late on which was a really nice goal.

"That was a left-footed curling finish, and he scored two goals against Alaves as well.

“The problem that he had was those moments were too few and far between. He took a long time to score his first goal and have a real impact in the final third.

“It’s always difficult, though, when you’re coming to a new city, especially a club as big as Barca – during Covid – and playing alongside Lionel Messi.

“He was just starting to click, really, but that formation change came and he disappeared through no fault of his own.

“He’s great at dribbling at players – picking it up deep and going past two or three. He just ran out of the options in the end with the bodies ahead of him and the change of formation.”

Trincao is a client of Jorge Mendes and played 28 times in La Liga last season.

Marsden, who also writes for Spanish publication Sport and talks about Barca on the Siempre Positivo podcast, believes his skills can transfer over to English football successfully, too.

“He’s got the potential to be really good in the Premier League,” he said.

“For him to convince Barca to spend 30m Euros on him, he’s obviously got something about him.

“He’s still young, so it’s hard to put too much weight on his shoulders, but he could be a really good signing. This feels like one which could certainly go in Wolves’ favour.

“There a lot of factors at play, especially with Wolves having a new manager.

“But he’s going into a squad with a lot of Portuguese players who will help settle him, having been with the senior national side a few times.

“It may be easier for him at Wolves where there is perhaps less pressure and scrutiny than here in Barcelona every day. The flip side is being a player coming from Barcelona, so it’ll be interesting to see how he handles that.

“On the face of it, it looks a good deal for Wolves – a season-long-loan with no obligation to buy. They get to try and see how it goes, and they could have a fantastic player on their hands.”