Wolves might have repeated Pedro Goncalves and Rafa Mir transfer mistake

Bruno Lage was disappointed to lose Spanish striker Rafa Mir to Sevilla last summer.

Mir returned to Wolves in August after helping Spain win Olympic gold in Tokyo with no intention of sticking around, despite Lage’s hope that he would form part of a striking trio with Raul Jimenez and Fabio Silva. The 6ft 3in Spaniard is the target man Lage still believes his forward line is lacking.

Wolves had allowed Mir’s contract to run down and they didn’t have much choice but to sell with less than 12 months remaining on his deal at Molineux. Sevilla made a £13.7million bid and Wolves reluctantly sold a player Lage would happily have kept.

The transfer has worked out for Mir, and he has scored 12 goals in 38 matches for Sevilla this season. He is by no means a guaranteed starter for the third-placed La Liga club, who acquired Anthony Martial on loan from Manchester United in January.

Lage will ask the club’s transfer team to find him a centre-forward of Mir’s type in the summer transfer window - but Wolves fans could be forgiven for wondering whether a possible solution has already been given away. Leonardo Campana is by no means the finished article, but his hat-trick for Inter Miami at the weekend demonstrated the skills Molineux never witnessed at first team level.

Ecuador international Campana was allowed to join David Beckham’s MLS franchise in January and they hold an option to sign him permanently. Campana’s struggles with previous loan clubs Famalicao and Grasshoppers mimics Mir’s disastrous spell at Nottingham Forest in 2019/20.

Campana is being mentored by former Real Madrid, Napoli and Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain in Miami, while Phil Neville is his coach. The 21-year-old stepped out of Higuain’s shadow to bag the