Wolves boss Gary O’Neil feels Fulham are still adjusting to losing Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Wolves meet Fulham on Monday.
On Mitrovic, now of Al Hilal, the manager said: “It’s tough transition, I would imagine, for them because he was a huge part of what they’ve done for such a long time. I played against that Fulham team as first-team coach at Bournemouth in the Championship and again last season in the Premier League, and he’s always been such a big part of what they’ve done.
“Obviously. they’ve replaced him, Vinicius came in a season or two ago, and Jimenez, who had a fantastic time here and is a really good player, is similar in how he can hold the ball up, is good in the air and is a goal threat. They seem to have found a similar way of doing things, but when you lose a guy who was scoring 60, 70 per cent of your goals, it’s obviously a big transition.”
On facing former Wolves pair Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore, O’Neil said: “The farewells are interesting because those two guys are still spoken about warmly around here, and the impact they had. The fact I’m here managing a Premier League team that has had the successes it had, they played a massive part in that.
“Sometimes the timing of things means you don’t get the farewell everybody would have liked, but it doesn’t change how everybody feels about those two and I know how the supporters feel about them as well. Two players who played a huge part in the club’s recent history, and huge respect for both of them, but hopefully they have a tough evening on Monday.”
