Liam Keen comment: Wolves weakened their unbalanced squad with lack of quality

Vitor Pereira insists he does not want any 'stars' and he wants the team to be the star, but a lack of quality, creativity and ingenuity has left him with a pragmatic but uninspiring team.

Any club in Wolves' position that sells Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri will have a difficult time replacing them, but the hierarchy have not adequately recruited to replace the magic that pair can produce.

Not including add-ons or any future fees, Wolves sold £119.2million worth of talent and spent £105.7million on replacements, including the fee to make Jorgen Strand Larsen's loan a permanent move. That results in a total net profit of around £13.5million.

The fact it is a profit is not the issue because Wolves brought in six new players and their gross spend was more than expected this summer.

The issue is the quality of those players. None of them have any Premier League experience, some are young and will need time and in the opening three games of the Premier League - albeit some have shown some positives - there is no star power.

In selling Cunha, Ait-Nouri and Goncalo Guedes, while allowing Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia to leave as free agents, Wolves have lost five players that contributed to 49 per cent of Wolves' goals and assists in the Premier League last season.

Just looking at goals - which of course is largely led by Cunha - they have lost 44 per cent of last season's strikes.

And that has been replaced by players who arrived without a single minute of Premier League experience. 

They may come good and in hindsight we will have a different view, but right now the only view to take is that Wolves are gambling with their future. They are relying a lot on players like Jhon Arias to improve on early showings and Larsen to replicate last season's form.

But quality is not the only problem, it is also the balance of the side and the glaring issue is how light Wolves are in midfield.

Last summer the club worked on signing a new centre-back but never got it done and it was a major mistake that they had to fix in January.

This year the same scenario has played out in midfield and Wolves are rolling the dice on Andre and Joao Gomes staying fit. The drop off in quality with the replacements is startling.

It is admirable that Pereira wanted two players for every position, but carrying six centre-backs going forward is unnecessary. In addition, having five wing-backs for two positions points to how unbalanced the squad is when Wolves needed a central midfielder and are arguably missing another number 10.

How good Ladislav Krejci is for Wolves is yet to be determined, but the extortionate loan fee and future transfer fee for him was way above market value for a player that Wolves arguably did not need.

Semedo needed replacing far earlier and although Jackson Tchatchoua has offered some positive moments, £10million only gets you so far in the current market. This also came after Marc Pubill and Juanlu Sanchez turned Wolves down.

The club's disorganised window was also highlighted by the deal for Christantus Uche that fell through. The agreement was done with Getafe but moving goalposts led to the player and his representatives refusing to agree personal terms and he ended up at Crystal Palace on deadline day.

The lack of direction from above and scattergun approach to the window has left Wolves bloated in some areas and weak in others and many fans feel it could be a risk too far.

Emmanuel Agbadou, Tchatchoua, Marshall Munetsi and new striker Tolu Arokodare will likely all be leaving in December for the Africa Cup of Nations and Wolves may find themselves needing to balance this squad in January, despite having months to do this work in the summer.

The positives saw Wolves stand their ground and keep Larsen, despite rejecting two bids from Newcastle and the player making it clear he wanted the move. That decision should be commended and they must now find a way to keep the forward happy and playing - which will likely include a new contract on an increased salary.

Meanwhile, Wolves also got a fantastic deal for Fabio Silva as he left for Borussia Dortmund, in a package worth up to £23million with add-ons.

The striker may go on to have a strong career in European football but it was never going to work at Wolves and to recoup most of the £35million they spent on him in 2020 can only be seen as a positive.

But, a lot of damage has been done to the squad and Wolves are likely to face an intense relegation battle unless some of the seemingly uninspired signings suddenly find their feet.

Fans are disillusioned and angry - and understandably so - as owners Fosun and club chairman Jeff Shi are rolling the dice again with Wolves' Premier League status.