Wolverhampton Wanderers are in desperate need of a central defender and their manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, will be looking to bolster their defensive ranks in the January transfer window.
Wolves are known for their attraction to Portuguese players for a number of reasons, one being their manager and another being super-agent Jorge Mendes who is close friends with Espirito Santo and also already represents a number of the players in the Wolves squad.
With a number of players from Portugal already in the ranks in the Black Country, any new signing from the country would fit straight in, in terms of any language barrier at least.
• Diogo Leite
Diogo Leite is a young Portuguese centre back who is currently playing for FC Porto in the Primeira Liga. He has made 17 appearances this campaign and, in October, he was linked with Barcelona and Southampton.
He has featured in Porto's last five games, starting in four of those, all of which that he started in resulted in wins. Leite is used to playing in a four at the back formation and in a similar system that Wolves are currently using. He has also played in a five at the back at times this season so he wouldn't be out of depth in Wolves decided to switch back to the five they have had success with.
In the 2018\19 season, Leite started every FC Porto B team game he was available for, only missing other games because he was involved with the first team.
He was also a mainstay in the FC Porto B team that lost in the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth League to Chelsea in the 2016/17 season.
He currently has 16 Portugal Under 21 appearances with a First team call up not far away. He would be a solid addition to the Wolves squad.
• Lee Buchanan
Lee Buchanan has been having a fine season for Derby County in the Championship this season. Mainly playing at Left-Back this season, Buchanan is quite undersized for a central Defender at 5'9, but he has played his whole youth career at Derby in the centre-back role playing an integral part in Derby's English Youth League win in 2018/19.
Buchanan broke into the Derby first team at the tail end of last season, he has pushed on since then to really assert himself as the Rams' first-choice left-back.
He would be a good signing for Wolves if they were to revert back to their five at the back formation that has helped them get into the Europa League in previous seasons as he would be very comfortable on the left side of a back three.
He would likely be available at a relatively low price due to Derby's current financial situation as of writing, due to their take over stalling and players wages not being paid in full.
• Domingos Duarte
Domingos Duarte is a centre back that plays for Granada in La Liga in Spain, he is also a Portuguese international having made his Portugal debut in November 2020. He has started all but one game that he has been available for emerging as one of the leading centre backs in Spain who doesn't play for one of the big three.
Granada are currently sitting in seventh in the La Liga standings with Duarte at the heart of the defence. They have six clean sheets in 18 games with Duarte the rock of the defence.
Duarte would cost somewhere in the region of £10-15million which isn't a lot for a defender of his quality in the current transfer market. He would be a solid signing for Wolves and he would fit into their squad well.
One extra player that would be available on loan but probably not for a permanent transfer is Fikayo Tomori who isn't currently getting much game time at Chelsea, he would get more game time in a short term loan at Wolves than he would at the Blues.