Wolves target Wallace is reportedly quite keen on joining the Premier League side from Lazio but the club from the Black Country will need to step up their efforts to get him.
Italian outlet Citta Celeste reported that Wolves’ initial offer of €6million (£5.4m) has been rejected by the Serie A club, whose president Claudio Lotito is demanding a fee of €8m (£7.2m) for the player.
Citta Celeste claimed that Wallace has been convinced by the prospect of playing in the Premier League and Wolves are likely to enlist the help of the player’s agent Jorge Mendes in selling him for the lower fee, as his agency also represents the club’s manager Nuno Espirito Santo and several Wolves players.
However, according to HITC, Lotito is a difficult and stubborn negotiator who is unlikely to accept anything less than his valuation of the 24-year-old defender.
Wallace is open to a move away from Lazio after featuring in only 29 Serie A games over the past two seasons.
He was linked with a potential switch to Wolves last year, as reported by Radiosei, and is familiar with playing in the type of three-man centre-back system that Nuno usually prefers.
Writing for HITC, Danny Owen described him as a “ball-playing centre-half” and the player’s passing success rate of 84.7% testifies to that.
Also, Wallace averaged 1.9 interceptions per game in Serie A last season, indicating an adept ability to read the play intelligently and thwart opposition attacks.
Wolves have been linked with another centre-back in recent days, with Greek outlet SDNA claiming that they are interested in Olympiakos defender Pape Abou Cisse.
Compared to Wallace, the Senegal international has a slightly inferior passing success rate of 83.2%, but his interceptions ratio of 2.3 per game was even better than that of the Lazio player.
Both Wallace and Cisse are comfortable with playing in a back three and therefore would likely adapt readily to Nuno’s system at Wolves.
Wallace’s composure in possession could tip the scales in his favour as the priority signing of the two, though, with his passing success rate higher than Cisse’s, as well as current Wolves centre-backs Conor Coady with 84.3%, Willy Boly with 81% and Ryan Bennett, who lags behind on 79.6%.
Even if Mendes is unable to convince Lotito to sell Wallace for less than £7.2m, that still seems to represent good value for a player of his attributes and he would add some welcome depth to Wolves’ squad. Also, fellow Mendes clients Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota, Rui Patricio and Joao Moutinho were all integral members of the side last season, each playing 37 games or more.
A defender of Wallace’s ball-playing ability looks capable of following in that vein and should be a transfer market priority for Wolves, all the more so as he is already keen on making the move.
Wolves fans, do you think £7.2m is worth paying to add Wallace to the squad? Share your views in the comments section below!
