Wolves transfer news: 'Key hours' ahead in chase for €30m-rated La Liga defender

Wolverhampton Wanderers are reportedly pushing hard to secure a deal for Girona defender Ladislav Krejci.

Head coach Vitor Pereira is eager for the club's hierarchy to sign fresh faces before the end of the summer transfer window, the Portuguese having recently indicated that he expects at least three additions.

Hellas Verona right-back Jackson Tchatchoua arrived earlier this week, taking the club's incomings to four and seemingly leaving central midfielder and a versatile attacker as next on the priority list.

However, conceding four times against Manchester City in Saturday's Premier League opener and fitness doubts over Emmanuel Agbadou and Yerson Mosquera means that central defence remains an area of concern.

As per Carrusel Deportivo and journalist Nil Sola, who were commenting on X, Wolves are attempting to sign Krejci as soon as possible.

'Key hours' ahead for Wolves, Krejci deal

The report suggests that Wolves have entered a pivotal period in their efforts to sign the 26-year-old, yet everything appears on track.

Girona are seemingly prepared to accept €30m (£25.97m) and the player is ready to make the switch to Molineux.

Krejci was signed by Girona last summer ahead of their first venture into the Champions League and proceeded to make 36 appearances in all competitions.

He completed the 90 minutes in all seven of his Champions League outings, three of them being 1-0 defeats to Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool and AC Milan.

Nevertheless, from his 27 starts in La Liga, Girona won just six times, an obvious cause for concern when they started the season as contenders to qualify for Europe for a second year in succession.

Twenty caps have been earned for Czech Republic, including three starts at Euro 2024, but his last outing for his country was a 5-1 reverse to Croatia in June.

A signing that will not excite Wolves fans

Krejci brings qualities such as height, being left-footed and can deputise as a defensive midfielder when required, but Wolves fans will have concerns over shelling out this amount of money for a player who played in Czech Republic until the age of 25.

A statistic that sticks out, however, is Krejci contributing 44 goals and 12 assists from 148 appearances for Sparta Prague, many of his outings coming as a midfielder.

On the flip side, this will be the fifth player signed by Wolves this summer that has no previous experience of the Premier League.

Furthermore, Wolves have become increasingly reliant on signing foreign players as opposed to acquiring British or Irish talent.

As it stands, backup goalkeepers Dan Bentley and Sam Johnstone are the only English players in the squad, while club legend Matt Doherty brings much-needed domestic experience.

Dutchman Ki-Jana Hoever is viewed as a homegrown talent in the eyes of the regulations having initially been at Liverpool from 2018 onwards when he was a teenager.