Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Bruno Lage indulged in a bit of mind games ahead of his team’s visit to Newcastle United on Friday night. The Portuguese coach dismissed the black and whites’ chances of attracting world-class players and building a team to compete for titles, which is something everyone expects Newcastle to do following their high-profile takeover last October.”It’s hard for a team like Newcastle or another team to find the right players or manager to convince them and change everything in just one year. Players’ careers are short, they play for 10 or 12 years, and the best players at the moment are in these ten teams. You can have the money but also it’s hard to convince them to move from that team, that city, from that club who can be ready to fight for European competitions, and to come and start a new project.”Dazzling dancing feet 😍#GoalOfTheDay 🤝 @Wolves pic.twitter.com/tCCMyL8SWM— Premier League (@premierleague) April 8, 2022 Newcastle United are allegedly the richest club in the world, although that is not true. Well, at least not legally. The company that controls 80 per cent of the club is indeed connected to Saudi Arabia’s Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the man whose wealth is estimated at around $18 BILLION. Still, it’s foolish to put the equal sign between the owner’s wealth and the money available for his football club to spend. Just ask Arsenal or Manchester United fans.Mozzart Bet is offering the best odds on two Friday matchesLage’s team remain in the hunt to qualify for Europe next term after an impressive first season at the helm for the former Benfica boss. But with Wolves’ owners Fosun determined to run the business responsibly, there is unlikely to be extravagant spending on transfers this year.”It’s also hard for us. We are in a place where we need the right players to help us to a different level at the right price. It’s not so easy to convince them to come here and help us do better. When you find the player, he probably has 10 or 12 proposals, and we need to convince him we have the best project for his career.”According to Lage, Wolverhampton and Newcastle seem to be in the same position – one club won’t spend on players – and the other wants to spend, but no player wants to join them. OK, Bruno, whatever you say.🗣 “I hope to start for the first time at St. James’ Park. I’m ready for this.”👊🇧🇷— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) April 7, 2022 The wealth, stadium size, and beauty of the cities these clubs hail from won’t matter at all tonight, though. There are 90 minutes to show what you’ve got on the pitch, and that’s it. That is the beauty of football anyway. Money isn’t playing – just 22 men.Newcastle has lost each of their last three in the competition after a nine-match Premier League unbeaten run between December 2021 and March 2022. They haven’t lost four in a row since a run of five in January 2021. Meanwhile, Wolves have won eight away Premier League games this season, their record-high for a single Premier League campaign.PREMIER LEAGUE – ROUND 32Friday22:00: (2.30) Newcastle (3.15) Wolverhampton (3.60)Saturday14:30: (5.40) Everton (3.70) Man.Utd. (1.75)17:00: (1.65) Arsenal (3.80) Brighton (6.25)17:00: (4.10) Southampton (3.50) Chelsea (2.00)17:00: (2.85) Watford (3.35) Leeds (2.65)19:30: (3.50) Aston Villa (3.50) Tottenham (2.20)Sunday16:00: (3.00) Brentford (3.20) West Ham (2.60)16:00: (2.40) Leicester (3.35) Crystal Palace (3.20)16:00: (3.00) Norwich (3.05) Burnley (2.75)18:30: (2.15) Man.City (3.50) Liverpool (3.60)***odds are subject to change***
