00:00Hello America and Judah, I'm here with Wars Reporter. It is Mr. Liam Keene. Liam, it's day six. We are actually broadcasting today from Shaqeen and Judah.
00:19The apartment is very nice. It's absolutely beautiful. Yeah, a nice little zebra behind us. A cactus.
00:23Cactus. Or cacti. Cacti. Why is the word for it?
00:26Don't know, don't care. Anyway. Tell you what we do care about. We care about signings, we care about new people to the group.
00:31Of course we spoke exclusively to Phil Lopez on day one. And yeah, fans are getting a bit antsy. They want some players in.
00:39Vitor wants some players in. Well they've got another player in, haven't they? And he's going to be a very, very exciting addition to this team.
00:48John Arias is going to be a wolf. Yes. Still forgot his name though.
00:54I was buying time, buying some time. Good thing you didn't. Yeah, look, deal agreed. We reported on Monday obviously that they were working on a £15 million deal for him.
01:02Hadn't quite been done yet, they were working towards him getting that finalised. A little bit of two in the throne with Fluminese.
01:07Maybe a little bit of saving face with their fans and maybe trying to get the best deal for them.
01:12They're devastated to lose him and it's a good thing for wolves. Yeah, of course. Exactly. The final deal was agreed at, this is in Euros, I'll convert it to pounds.
01:1817 million Euros, 5 million add-ons. Which works out at around 14.7 million with 4.3 in add-ons. So a lot of numbers there to throw around.
01:29And to be honest, I think it's quite a good deal. It's still a really good deal. It obviously depends on how easy those add-ons are.
01:37Don't expect them to be so easy. No, I don't think so. And if you're looking at the face of it, just under £15 million.
01:43I'd like to say £14.7 million as the, I'd say up front, it'd be paid in installments, obviously. That is the initial fee.
01:50That is actually quite a good deal, really. Look, he hasn't played in Europe, which of course is going to be a little bit of a sticking point.
01:56But he's 27 years old, he's a senior player, Colombian international, was in the team of the tournament at the Club World Cup.
02:02His stock is high at the moment as well. And for Wolves to get hit for that price, considering they paid 19 and a half a fair load per se, 21 and only played 17 games in La Liga,
02:11I think it's a very, very good price as well.
02:13It seems like a good deal. Deal agreed. Wrap him up in cotton wool. Wrapping up in ball wrap. Send him across to Europe where he can do his medical.
02:22There's a game last night, he's not going to play on it. He might go and say, wait, bye to the fans. Plays 90 minutes.
02:28Yeah. That's unusual.
02:30It is very unusual. And it was agreed with the club and the team.
02:34Yeah, yeah. And it seemed, well, Wolves was fortunate that he's got through it and he's okay.
02:39So, yeah, I mean, obviously with this deal as well, I did mention there was a 10% salary as well, which is important to mention, part of that, those sort of negotiations.
02:45But, obviously, Fluminense didn't want to lose him. He's been there since 2021, so he's been there for quite a while.
02:50And it was an opportunity for him to say goodbye. Would he, would everyone, Wolves related, the one they did see him play 90 minutes? Definitely not.
02:56It's couldn't wait him at half time, John.
02:58Yeah, exactly. So, look, he started, played the full game, they lost 2-0 to Cruzeiro at home. Not their best performance by any means.
03:05I obviously don't know exactly quite how he got, I think he did okay, but that's by the by. Get through, don't get injured, and the team's okay.
03:12Had a whole goodbye at the end, a big obrigado and all this kind of stuff at the end.
03:16It's a nice access, guys. Yeah, that's pretty good, yeah.
03:18So, yeah, so that's, you know, done and dusted. The next stage is him to become a Wolves player.
03:23So, they've got to sort his visa. To do that, he'll be going for his medical in Europe, not in the UK.
03:29They'll be sorting that out, getting him signed. It'll probably be announced maybe before or just as he's joining up with the group,
03:36which we're expecting to be sort of back-ended next week. The medical itself will be next week as well, probably early doors.
03:41So, yeah, should be all good to go.
03:44Yeah, and expect him to, I don't think he'll come straight. They're going to be playing straight away.
03:47He might need some time to recover, but we expect him to be in and around the squad for Stoke, Laws, and going to Girona as well.
03:54Hopefully, yeah, because as you say, the Brazilian league is ongoing, so he's been playing, obviously, Club World Cup as well.
03:58It depends whether Wolves, because he's going to have a long Premier League season to go, would like him to have a little bit of a rest.
04:03That will come into their thinking, their factoring, I'm sure.
04:06But, yeah, we expect him to be around in pre-season. We expect to get a good look at him, hopefully, at some point in the next few weeks.
04:11And it's a senior addition, which is exactly what Wolves needed. As I say, he hasn't played in Europe.
04:16There's going to be a couple of drawbacks on that, but they needed a senior attacking player.
04:21You lost Cunha, no, he was a wing-back, but very good going forward. Sarabia's gone. Experienced and senior player to compliment the likes of a young sign like Lopez.
04:30Can only be a good thing. And, from what we're told, from people that know him and have been around this deal, he's a player that plays with a lot of heart.
04:39Which is exactly what Wolves fans want, exactly what Wolves fans need, and exactly what this team needs, to be honest.
04:43So, if he can do that, and be the right character, which they put a lot of focus on doing, then I'm sure he'll be a successful signing.
04:49We've discussed at length about players that Wolves need, and we think that the bench, a lot of the players here will probably be on the bench, but they need starters.
04:57They need signings who are going to come straight into the Spurs team and be regular starters.
05:02We think in Arias, he's that oven-ready player who will come in and slot not only into this squad, but into this starting XI.
05:08Has to be. Has to be, yeah. Because, one, they need it desperately, as you've said.
05:13But his age, his experience, the numbers, goals, assists that he's been able to pick up at Fluminense in the last few years,
05:20all speaks to a player that's going to come in and impact the first team pretty much straight away.
05:25We've said we'd give Wolves a little bit of leeway because he's a young lad.
05:28Obviously, we don't expect Arias to score a hatch on his day, but what we expect is a player to come in and hit the ground running relatively quickly.
05:34You talk about that front three that Wolves play, that Vito plays.
05:38Strand-Larsen, obviously one of the first names on the team sheet in terms of the attacking members.
05:43Do we think Arias is the second one who's a definite green tick?
05:46And then it's that third striker slash forward who's going to be, whether it's going to be Lopez or another signing.
05:52There's obviously Huang, there's Geddes as well.
05:54Minetzi.
05:55I think they probably do see Minetzi more as a forward rather than in that midfield or someone that would maybe not play the two necessarily.
06:02Yeah, I think that's right.
06:04Arias and Larsen, as it stands, provided he goes well, he comes in and is fine.
06:09I think it has to be two of the first names on that team sheet based on the form and the players that they're all going to have available.
06:15Look, there's obviously a lot of speculation. There's a lot of news stories today.
06:20Vito Pereira has done some interviews with some Portuguese outlets.
06:23Express the start, when are you going to speak to him? When are you going to see him?
06:26Well, we've spoken to him on the pitch, off the pitch.
06:29We've got an exclusive interview with him later on this evening as well.
