Wolverhampton Wanderers may be enjoying a solid season under Gary O’Neil, but the club still have some big earners on the books who are currently out on loan.

The likes of Fabio Silva, Sasa Kalajdzic, Daniel Podence and Goncalo Guedes are all on temporary moves away from Molineux, yet they will still be draining Fosun and Wolves of cash.

While a few of these players may have futures at the club, Guedes looks as though he could be an expensive mistake and potentially even worse than Diego Costa.

Diego Costa’s statistics at Wolves

With Bruno Lage looking for another striker during the embryonic stages of the 2022/23 campaign, he secured the services of Costa on a one-year deal worth £62k-per-week.

The proven striker had enjoyed wonderful spells at Chelsea and Atlético Madrid, yet during his only season in the Midlands, Costa managed to score just one goal in 25 matches and departed looking a shadow of his former self.

Although he was poor, Guedes was arguably even worse, especially considering the extravagant fee Lage shelled out on the Portuguese international during the summer transfer window of 2022.

How much Goncalo Guedes has cost Wolves

Following a spell at Valencia which saw the player register 20 goal contributions in all competitions – 13 goals and seven assists – he made the move to Molineux for a fee of £27.5m.

It was a lavish fee, yet if Lage could get the left-winger to replicate the performances he enjoyed at Valencia during the 2021/22 campaign, Wolves would have an excellent attacking threat.

It didn’t quite work out as expected, however, as Guedes scored just twice during the first half of the 2022/23 season while creating only one big chance, averaging 0.7 key passes per game and succeeding with just 0.4 successful dribbles per game, indicating that he failed to really produce anything near his best.

Julen Lopetegui shipped him out on loan to Benfica in January 2023 and he remained there until last month, before joining Villarreal on another temporary deal as O’Neil looked to build a side without him.

There is no doubt the 27-year-old is a solid player, but he failed to demonstrate this during his spell in the Midlands, and he has drained Fosun of a lot of money in the process – even despite seeing his wages seemingly being paid by both Benfica and Villarreal over the past year or so.

Indeed, combining his £27.5m transfer fee with what the £90k-per-week man earned during those first six months at Molineux – roughly £2.3m – and Guedes has rinsed Wolves of around £30m, a ridiculous amount of money for a player who has just netted twice.

The club certainly do have a recent history of splashing out on players who fail to hit the ground running, and Guedes is just the latest example of their poor record in the transfer market.

Under O’Neil, things will hopefully begin to look up as they will be forced to move players on due to financial fair play regulations before signing anyone new this summer.

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Guedes will return from his loan spell then, and he must be one of the candidates that the manager has in mind with regard to being sold in order to balance the books at Wolves.