Striker reveals manager put ‘a lot of pressure’ on him to sign for Wolves – Molineux spell never worked out

Sevilla striker Rafa Mir has revealed that manager Nuno Espirito Santo put a lot of pressure on him to join Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018.

The striker joined Wolves in a £1.8m deal from Valencia B in January 2018 and spent the next three years at Molineux before a move to Sevilla last summer.

He would make just four appearances for the first team, though, instead spending the majority of his time with the club out on loan with Las Palmas, Nottingham Forest and Huesca.

All four of those appearances came under former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo, who handed him 29 minutes across two appearances in the Championship and a further 77 in two games in the FA Cup.

He knew the player well from his time in charge at Valencia, where he used the striker as a youngster in one appearance in the Champions League clash with Zenit St Petersburg in in 2015/16.

It is strange, then, that the Portuguese coach didn’t show more faith in Mir during his time in charge, with the striker revealing he pushed hard to sign him in the first place.

“Nuno is a great coach who also marked my career, at Valencia making my debut and then putting a lot of pressure on me to go to Wolverhampton with him,” he told Diario de Sevilla.

“He is a great coach and now I think he is in Saudi Arabia, and I wish him all the best.

“I grew up playing football in Valencia, it’s a club that I’m very fond of and it gave me everything and I don’t know if I’ll be able to give it back in this life.”