Gary O'Neil expresses confidence over future of Wolves star
Gary O'Neil is 'very confident' that Wolves' star midfielder Joao Gomes will stay with the club next season despite links to some of Europe's top sides.
A number of clubs, including Manchester United and Arsenal, have been credited with an interest in the 23-year-old.
Gomes, who signed for Wolves in January 2023 for £15million, has shone in gold and black and O'Neil is convinced he will stay with the club beyond the summer.
"He loves it here, I speak to him all the time and he's unbelievably happy," O'Neil said.
"The club have already spoken around the opportunity to do some business and we could lose one of our more valuable ones to reinvest, but we don't have to.
"You can see this year we've managed to achieve certain things with a small group, so we could easily stay as we are and keep everyone together, or it might be right for us to do some business and try to add some numbers.
"I'm very confident Joao Gomes will be here next year. He loves it here and is a big part of what we're trying to achieve.
"There's no real fear on my part about losing Joao. I'm really comfortable with the situation and I'm looking forward to working with him next season."
The battling midfielder has also earned a senior Brazil call-up and played 90 minutes at Wembley against England and then started against Spain at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Both times he played ahead of highly-rated Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz, and O'Neil is pleased with Gomes' impressive progress.
"I'm delighted with the improvements he's made this year and what he is as a kid, we love him here," O'Neil added.
"He's fantastic. He's great to have around the place.
"He's desperate to be successful but you never get the feeling it's for himself, you get the feeling it's for the group and for the club who he feels put a lot of faith in him by bringing him over to English football.
"You always feel he wants to repay that and it's always the group before himself.
"I had a big smile on my face when I saw him representing his country at Wembley and doing as well as he did. I'm delighted for him.
"It's important we keep pushing him because of his age and there's still a lot we can improve with him.
"Hopefully we can get him to be a regular in the Brazil squad, which is an unbelievable achievement."
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