Greek side Olympiacos have reportedly reached an agreement to sign Daniel Podence from Wolverhampton Wanderers. The Portuguese winger was linked with a move to Celtic during the summer but the Scottish Champions elected to move on from their interest and sign Luis Palma.
The 27-year-old has been training with the Wolves reserves after Gary O’Neil followed the lead by his predecessor Julen Lopetegui to move him out of the Premier League club. According to Sportime.gr’s Editor Giannis Choriananopoulos, a deal has been agreed but it is contingent upon the Greek club being able to register Podence as part of their UEFA Europa League squad.
❗️ Olympiacos have an agreement in principle with Wolves for Daniel Podence. BUT NO transfer if Olympiacos don’t manage to register him in the list for Europa League. Podence does not want to play only in the
In 105 appearances for Wolves, Podence scored 16 goals and earned 9 assists but it was his form during his first spell with Olympiacos, where he netted 13 times and assisted on 14 occasions in 68 appearances
Wolves, who would lose Podence on a free next summer, were said to be demanding £12m for the player – effectively pricing him out of a move to most teams. Celtic were cited as being interested but the fee along with the wages left Brendan Rodgers’ team looking elsewhere.
Asked whether he felt there had been a big absence in the squad, clearly referring to Bellegarde and his transfer to Molineux, he made it clear it was not to blame.
He said: “It’s the transfer window, it’s been like that for years and this type of situation happens often. We prepared the game as normal. We also discovered that Jeanjean was leaving and we were obviously disappointed because he’s a good player, but it’s part of football.”
Bellegarde was not able to immediately jump into action over the weekend when Wolves lost 3-2 to Crystal Palace in London, but there is a good chance he will be able to play in the next game, which will see his new side welcome Liverpool at Molineux.
In fact, those will be the kind of games he will have made the transfer for.
