Matt Hobbs believes Wolves have added a different type of player to their first-team group by bringing Frenchman Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to Molineux.
Completing the Old Gold’s transfer business for another window with the arrival of the 25-year-old from Strasbourg, Wolves’ sporting director feels the signings Bellegarde will compliment the moves the club has made during the summer, with the midfielder able to play in the centre of the park as well as in wide attacking positions.
On bringing Bellegarde to Wolves
“He’s a player the recruitment team flagged towards the end of last season, and he’s started this season very well. He’s been a late developer but he’s athletic, technical and has ability to drive with the ball, and you can see from his goal and assist record that he’s had an excellent start to this season.
“He’s another player who adds to us, adds to our depth, and probably gives us something different that we’ve lost with Nunes going.”
On what he will add to O’Neil’s squad
“He can play in three positions in our system, which is what Gary likes to do. He will add creativity and he’s got good end product.
“With the runners that we have going forward, his athleticism from the middle of the pitch, as well as his strength and his ability to find that final ball – as he’s shown in France – will be really important to us.”
On fitting into an international team
“We’ve got four French speakers, and one thing I never worry about with us is players adapting. Not just for all the different languages that we speak – although all of the French speakers we have speak English as well – but the culture that’s created here is that they’re welcoming, and people know how it works.
“The leadership group are very good in that, which we saw with what Matheus [Cunha] did with the two South American boys, bringing them in to training and making sure they’re comfortable.
“That side of what we do from the players and the work that Lisa [Hollis, head of player care] and her team do, I never worry about the new signings settling.”
On adapting to the Premier League
“I say it for every player, but fans know now that if you bring in a player from a foreign country, no league is like the Premier League, so it’s going to take them time to settle, get to grips with the language, with the food, and, on the pitch, getting up to speed with the Premier League, the speed of it and the intensity of it.
“In the Premier League, there’s no easy games, but in other leagues there are games where teams know they are going to win when they look at their schedule, but here you have to be on it every single day.
“It obviously takes time for people to adapt to that, but what we also have to allow them during this time is having good games and bad games because there will be games that catch people out because of the intensity of them or just how often they come.
“If you look at the signings we’ve done this window, they’re all good ages, good profiles, but they will require time and patience. However, they’re all good characters who work hard on the pitch, and I know the fans will really buy into them and give them that time they need.”
On adding a different character to the group
“I’ve talked before about the recruitment team having players for every position, that’s their job, to find these players and monitor them, but he is one that was right there for if Nunes left of a similar profile. I’m not saying he’s like Nunes, he’s his own player, but he was one that they had at the top of their list that we’d be looking to add.
“Then we have to analyse the rest of the group and its make-up. We brought in Enso [Gonzalez], Tommy {Doyle] and Santi [Bueno] and what they would give to us, but we felt we were still missing that drive from the centre of the pitch and creativity, so we decided he would be an excellent signing for us.”
