Wolverhampton Wanderers seem to be preparing themselves for Pedro Neto's inevitable sale this summer, with Manchester City and Newcastle United eager to complete a deal.
However, as the Telegraph reveal, Gary O'Neil's team is in a good position and will only entertain offers if the £60m asking price is met, which, in turn, would open up a window of opportunity to strengthen across a number of areas ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
The 24-year-old Portugal star missed half of the season due to injury but posted two goals and nine assists from just 20 top-flight fixtures, and so replacing him with a fitting player is paramount.
Wolves eyeing Pedro Neto replacement
According to GiveMeSport, Wolves are expected to consider tabling an offer for Championship phenom Jonathan Rowe in the coming months, who has enjoyed an exemplary breakout year with Norwich City.
However, the young winger's team were thrashed by Leeds United in the playoff semi-finals and thus will look to cash in on the 21-year-old for a lucrative sum.
A potential transfer price has not been listed but there's no question that the Old Gold would have the requisite purse to seal the deal if Neto is indeed sold soon.
Jonathan Rowe's season in numbers
Rowe has scored 13 goals and added four assists from 28 starting displays across all competitions this season, with his football in recent months stifled by a hamstring injury.
Sky Sports' Lee Hendrie has marvelled over his "scintillating" ability, with his growing threat in front of goal merged with a breakneck dribbling ability and sharp defensive awareness.
Indeed, Rowe ranks among the top 2% of attacking midfielders and wingers across divisions similar to the Championship over the past year for goals scored per 90, as per FBref, but he also ranks among the top 14% for tackles per 90.
Furthermore, Rowe has only missed four big chances in the Championship this season despite scoring 12 times – highlighting his prolific quality – while averaging 1.1 dribbles and 4.9 successful duels per game, as per Sofascore.
The Norwich academy graduate does have previous Premier League experience, clinching one assist from 13 appearances during the Norfolk-based team's last campaign at the top of the pyramid, though he was an inexperienced teenager on the fringe of a relegation-bound team and must not be viewed from this spell.
He'd be a credit to the Wolves system, enhancing a Molineux side overflowing with pace, trickery and players fit for O'Neil's counter-attacking philosophy.
Rowe has the innate ability to bloom into a worthy successor for Neto, especially given his likeness to one Sadio Mane…
Why Wolves are interested in Jonathan Rowe
Rowe is more incisive than Neto, preferring to score the goals himself rather than create them for his peers, but he's not selfish, merely growing into a clinical and impactful attacking player, much like that of former Liverpool stalwart Mane.
His listed strengths certainly speak of a quality of a semblance to the Senegalese sensation, who played a key part in one of the Premier League's deadliest-ever frontlines.
And, moreover, Rowe is blessed with the dynamism and tactical fluidity to fill in across a range of roles, deepening the argument that, yes, this is a player with the trappings of something special.
Right midfield
8
5
1
Right winger
7
4
0
Left winger
6
1
2
Left midfield
5
1
0
Attacking midfield
2
1
0
While it's clear that Rowe's favoured role is on the right, where his left-footed preference provides him with the greatest execution of his offensive arsenal, he's still competent on the left and even in the middle, with the goal shown earlier in the article, against Hull City, proving his skill at slaloming through a helpless backline to place the ball in the back of the net.
It's a nonchalant thing at times. Rowe scores goals. And while he's got a long way to go, it is this mix of flexibility and deadliness that makes him such a fear-inducing adversary for defenders, like Mane.
Left winger
194
80
31
Right winger
44
21
8
Centre-forward
29
19
3
Take, for example, Mane's first Premier League campaign as a Liverpool player after signing from Southampton in a £34m deal. During the 2016/17 term, the forward posted 13 goals and five assists from 27 matches, missing just three big chances.
He also averaged 1.6 key passes, 2.5 dribbles and 7.0 duels per outing, with such skill and artistry in his work proving immediately that Jurgen Klopp had secured for his team a new kind of striker, one free from the constraints of waywardness, a lack of direction, that Liverpool had previously suffered for such a long and limp period.
Rowe is not at that level yet but he is in the fledgling period of a career that promises success, having been hailed as "unstoppable" by reporter Chris Reeve – it is now up to him to fashion his journey and Wolves offer the perfect conditions, especially with Neto likely departing.
Wolves have done a good job under O'Neil's leadership this season but the tactician will be eager to paint the Premier League in glowing Old Gold after the summer, making astute moves to lift the club back into the top half of the table and perhaps even challenge for Europe.
Neto's absence would leave a hole, but Rowe has the qualities to progress his career in the Portuguese's stead and take Molineux back to a position of prominence.
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