Explained: Why Matheus Nunes’ Man City transfer strike at Wolves was pointless & had no impact on £53m move

The Portugal international midfielder took matters into his own hands when learning that he had become a top target for the 2022-23 Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup Treble winners. City saw an initial £47 million ($59m) approach knocked back, leading to Nunes going AWOL at Wolves.

A deal was eventually done on deadline day at £53m ($66m), with City youngster Tommy Doyle included in that package as he moved to Molineux on loan. Nunes ultimately got his wish, as he headed to the Etihad Stadium, but O’Neil is adamant that his questionable behaviour played no part in that.

O’Neil has told talkSPORT of Wolves doing a deal at the asking price they always had in place: “It’s difficult for me to talk about now because Matheus is obviously at Manchester City. I don’t want to talk too much about Manchester City’s players. That wouldn’t have been how I chose to handle it. I know players nowadays have a lot of people advising them on how best to do things. As a club, we were always really clear on how the process would go. We had a valuation for Matheus. We also had things we needed to try and get in place to make sure we could replace him within the next few days.

“So that the offer we received, if it had got to the level we were happy with, we were always going to give Matheus our blessing and allow him to move on. But the way the player behaves in that situation doesn’t change that. It doesn’t bring the price down, it doesn’t make us more keen to do it or not do it. There’s a lot of things that go into a player moving clubs, especially at that time in the window. It’s not how I would have chosen to do it. But before that time with Matheus. A very talented boy. Good kid, works his socks off every single day for us. Hopefully the move goes well for him.”

Nunes has signed a five-year contract with City and will be hoping to make his debut for the Blues away at West Ham on September 16, having been an unused substitute in their 5-1 victory over Fulham prior to the international break.