Nuno wants Wolves to 'go strong' in the transfer market

Raul Jimenez (£32million) and Leander Dendoncker (£12m) are Wolves two summer signings so far.

Both were on loan at Molineux last season and with Helder Costa (Leeds, loan) and Ivan Cavaleiro (Fulham, loan) having left recently, Nuno's senior squad has got smaller over the summer.

The head coach said that owing to a number of international competitions such as the Copa America, the African Cup of Nations and the European Under-21 Championship, the transfer market had slowed.

However, he knows the importance of signing a number of first-team players before the transfer deadline on August 8.

"We have to realise this season is different, there’s a lot of international competition," Nuno said on Monday during a press conference in Shanghai.

"It was a lot of football and a lot of players involved in the competitions. In my view it delays everything and after that the prices go high because we are close to the other European markets.

"It’s hard, especially for us because we want quality over quantity. I hope we realise that and just go strong in the market, bringing the players we want to bring, but this season is different to all the seasons. The market is a bit out of normal."

Wolves travel back from Shanghai on Sunday, ahead of their Europa League campaign starting against either Crusaders or B36 Torshavn at Molineux next Thuesday.

Will the players be able to recover from their China exertions in time?

"We are aware we’re going to arrive (home) on the 21st, but we have a lot of people involved trying to avoid jetlag," he said.

"It’s worse when we come, it’s not as bad when we return. Hopefully it will not be an issue for us, we have three or four days.

"We have a way of working, based on a small squad, that allows everybody to be involved and we’re not going to change, we’ll keep the same numbers, it’s about quality.

"Last season we had a lot of players who played than 80 percent of games. Hopefully we can continue, with quality."

Wolves face Newcastle and either Manchester City or West Ham in the Premier League Asia trophy this week, which Nuno believes will be a good test in a different environment.

Then all eyes will turn to the new season, during which the Wolves boss wants to see progress – with a small, cohesive squad, like last season.

"We are a very small group of first-team players and we decided on a daily basis we work with young players, under-23s and a lot of under-18s," he said.

"We are opening a window of opportunity for these boys and it’s inside of our idea to try and build young players that can hopefully, in the future, be in the squad of Wolves.

"At this point they are progress well but I already told the boys, everybody starts after us, we start 15 days before everybody else, so we have to do it well and quickly."