Young Wolves striker Niall Ennis could be loaned out to League Two club Plymouth Argyle for next season in order to gain first-team experience.
Football Insider reported that the 20-year-old was in advanced talks to join the Devon-based club on loan for the 2019/20 campaign.
According to Football Insider, the striker is well down the pecking order in Nuno Espirito Santo’s list of forwards and the manager will allow him to be loaned out for the season.
The Football Insider report added that several Football League clubs were interested in taking Ennis on loan, but Plymouth are the favourites to secure his services.
Ennis has so far played just two minutes of first-team football for Wolves, coming off the bench towards the end of the FA Cup fourth round replay win over Shrewsbury.
Ironically, that was the club where he had a loan spell two seasons ago, but a serious knee injury restricted him to only two appearances for the Shrews.
While his first-team experience currently stands at a mere 85 minutes, he enjoyed an impressive campaign for Wolves’ under-23 team last season, scoring nine goals and providing three assists in 20 appearances in Premier League 2.
He is also an England youth international, having represented his country at under-17, under-18 and under-19 level.
However, there are four centre forwards at Molineux with far more experience than Ennis. Raul Jimenez, the club’s top scorer last season with 17 goals, is at the head of the queue.
Behind the Mexico striker is Leo Bonatini, who only scored once last season, along with returning duo Rafa Mir and Bright Enobakhare, who had respective loans at Las Palmas and Coventry.
Enobakhare scored six goals in his 18 games on loan at the Sky Blues in League One, while Mir netted seven times in 30 appearances for the Spanish second-tier outfit.
Although neither of those played top tier football last season, they still accrued regular game time at senior level, something that Ennis only sampled for roughly 120 seconds at the tail end of an FA Cup match.
Even though Wolves are not blessed with that many potent centre forward options, Ennis’ inexperience would likely make it tough for Nuno to elevate him to the first-team squad at this moment in time.
If he goes on loan to Plymouth, he should at least get valuable first-team experience there and perhaps then he could be capable of forging his way into Nuno’s plans, especially if the likes of Bonatini, Mir and Enobakhare (whose contract ends in 2020) fail to impress next season and are subsequently allowed to leave.
Wolves fans, would you be in favour of Ennis going on loan to Plymouth next season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
