Wolverhampton Wanderers’ business in the transfer market has been hit or miss since their return to the Premier League in 2018 under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Managing to lure players such as Joao Moutinho, Rui Patricio and Diogo Jota to the club proved to be masterstrokes, yet these excellent signings were offset by some big mistakes.
Splashing out on Fabio Silva (£35.6m) and Nelson Semedo (£37m) have been failed experiments to say the least and has certainly pushed the narrative that the Old Gold only spend big in order to try and improve, but it hasn’t always been the case.
Indeed, when they signed Matt Doherty for just £75k back in 2010, nobody knew at the time that he would go on to be one of their most impressive signings in recent years.
How much is Matt Doherty worth now?
The Irishman enjoyed a wonderful spell at Wolves between 2010 and 2020 before joining Tottenham Hotspur for £15m that summer, marking a huge profit for the Midlands outfit.
The right-back played over 300 games for the Molineux side, scoring 28 goals and registering 41 assists – excellent statistics for a defender – and he played an integral part in the club establishing themselves in the Premier League following their promotion in 2018.
Selling him at the time for a major profit on their initial £75k outlay has proven to be a wise decision, especially with his performances for Spurs in recent seasons as his value has dropped significantly.
The Irishman hasn’t played over 20 league matches since leaving Wolves in 2020 and compared to positional peers in Europe’s big five leagues, Doherty ranks in just the lowest 12% for progressive passes, 41% for tackles and 45% for clearances, proving that he is slowly on the decline as a defender.
His form at international level is perhaps making him more of an outlier, especially during his country’s recent defeat to France in the European Championship qualifiers as Josh Bunting lauded the Atletico Madrid right back as “solid” despite coming up against the effervescent Randal Kolo Muani while playing out of position on the left-hand side.
Since leaving the Old Gold, however, his market value has dropped, and will likely continue to fall over the next 12 months. Football Transfers now value the 31-year-old at €10.9m (£9.5m), suggesting Wolves sold him at exactly the right time.
Although he was a wonderful servant to the club, it appears as though Wolves have played a blinder selling Doherty when they did, managing to get the maximum amount of value out of his sale.