Julen Lopetegui only wants committed players at Wolves

By Nick Mashiter, PA

Julen Lopetegui is ready to axe any player keen to leave Wolves and only wants those dedicated to the cause.

The former Spain boss has guided the club to safety with three games left and has immediately turned his attention to rebuilding at Molineux.

Adama Traore, Diego Costa and Joao Moutinho are out of contract in the summer while Wolves have a two-year option on Nelson Semedo’s deal which ends next month and Raul Jimenez and Ruben Neves have a year left.

Lopetegui will meet with chairman Jeff Shi to discuss the future and only wants players fully committed to the club.

“From when I arrived here I think my opinion about the commitment in the club, all the people around the club and the players was fantastic for me,” he said.

“But of course you have to analyse the complete year and we have to take decisions to try to improve our squad and have players that want to be here.

“For me that’s very important. You have to stay where you want to be. If not it doesn’t matter what your name is. For me this is key in this situation.

“We are going to try to analyse all of these situations but the place to analyse this is inside.

“The players that want to stay here are important. I want players that are happy here, not players who are thinking they are here to go to another place.

“That doesn’t work in football. After, you are going to see what happens but you have to be happy to be here at Wolves, playing for Wolves, trying to improve Wolves.

“I want these kind of players.”

Wolves go to Manchester United on Saturday before hosting Everton and travelling to Arsenal on the final day.

They are 10 points clear of the drop zone but, despite being safe, Lopetegui is aware they must protect the integrity of the league with Arsenal still in with a chance of the title, United fighting for the top four and Everton not yet safe.

“We have to do the same thing we would want other teams to do if we were competing,” he added.

“Fortunately now we achieved our aims but there are a lot of teams still playing and fighting for their achievements so we have to be aware of that and do our best.”