Wolves work on winger deal as defender's future remains in doubt

The Uruguay international defender remained at Molineux beyond the English transfer deadline but may yet depart abroad, with several foreign windows still open.

Peixoto wants a right-sided winger to complete his squad and former Villa and Sunderland star Traore is the primary target.

With Wolves already at the maximum Championship squad size of 25 senior players, a departure would be needed to create space for the Burkina Faso international and Bueno is the most likely to make way.

Ladislav Krejci, another player linked with an exit, is expected to stay, while goalkeeper Jose Sa has signed a contract extension.

Speaking on Friday before the interest in Traore emerged, Peixoto admitted he “didn’t know” whether Bueno would stay.

“We are looking to bring one more player. I want a winger, like I said before,” he said.

“It’s a position if you find the right name, the right characteristics, you bring.

“It’s not bringing like just to be a number or an option. If we find the right name to come, we can do this signing after the window is closed.”

Asked about needing to move another player out, Peixoto continued: “We have to look and manage the situation, I think we need this player to take us to two players per position, like I said before.

“With the way we need, we need four wingers, two on the left, two on the right because it is a position to run a lot during the game and we need to stay competitive in 90 minutes.”

Traore, 30, made 55 Premier League appearances in a three-year spell at Villa, after joining for £17million from Lyon in 2020. He had 12 top-flight outings for Sunderland last season, scoring one goal.

Peixoto, meanwhile, defended Wolves’ business during a transfer window which was less busy than expected.

By far the biggest change came in the dugout when Peixoto replaced Rob Edwards. Two of the six signings made since then were goalkeepers, with the £7.7million spent on winger Rafiki Said was the only significant transfer fee.

But the boss said: “I’m happy. We changed a lot. We changed two goalkeepers, we changed the left-back, we changed Jordan James, we got Sean (Neave) and Rafiki.

“We changed a lot but it is not possible to change all the team. They have contracts and we have to respect that.

“We also have quality. I look at the team and they show more quality than in the past.

“Now I think they start to show that in the game. I believe in the players and we changed a lot of players.”