Wolves midfielder Matheus Nunes eyeing top eight spot

Nunes’ first season in English football saw Wolves battle relegation and survive following the appointment of Julen Lopetegui.

Despite losing Ruben Neves, Nunes believes Wolves have the quality to mount a challenge in the top half of the table next season.

“We have enough quality players to try to stay in the top eight,” he said. “Look at Newcastle, nobody gave anything for them in the beginning, but look where they are now. That has to be our aim.

“I’m not the type of person to aim to be in 15th place. I think most of the players, if not everyone, have that mindset as well. We have to aim high and anything which comes is going to benefit us.”

After making a £38million switch from Sporting, Nunes had bright moments but struggled for a big impact at Molineux.

Looking back on his first season, the midfielder says he has learned a lot heading into the new campaign.

He added: “It was a tough year overall, for all of us, not only for the players, but also for the club and for the fans, everybody around the club. Having a lot of Portuguese players in the team helped me a lot, people I knew before for the national team or Estoril, like Toti.

“Having these people, I knew before helped me settle in a lot, to help me get to know the club, the values, the objectives of the team – everything. Overall, it was tough because I didn’t expect us to be in the relegation zone.

“I thought we had players to compete for the European championships, but it was a learning year, it taught me a lot, to be more tough, a hard worker even more because you need to keep your head up when the storm comes and that’s what I tried do every time we had a loss, every time we were struggling.”