‘Wolves fans don’t need to worry’ as Ruben Neves has a deal until 2024

The star midfielder has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks with reports suggesting he could leave the club for as little as £35million this summer.

The Express & Star reported this week, however, that the club would not be forced into selling the 24-year-old but would listen to the right offer.

When Neves signed his long-term contract in 2018 it was announced as a deal until 2023, but now, general manager of football operations Wild has revealed he is under contract until 2024 and fans should not worry about him leaving Molineux.

He said: “I think in the press or our fans are thinking he’s only signed up to 2023, but in fact he is on contract until 2024.

“He’s still got another three years, so fans don’t need to worry that he’s going to be going anywhere, or he’s going to be out of contract any time soon. So, yes, he’s still got another three years on his contract.”

After a testing season where Wolves dropped to 13th in the Premier League, supporters have expressed their disappointment at the team’s fortunes.

Much of the frustration is often targeted at the club’s hierarchy, with some signings and the size of the squad coming under fire.

Now, executive chairman Jeff Shi has called on supporters to trust them.

He said: “I do hear from them and I do want them to be happy, so sometimes I feel not that good when they show me some negativity.

“Just now I did an email to one of them, because every week I receive several emails from the fans, and I do try to reply to them, and for the email today, I said my major job is not to please the fans by words. It’s hollow, it has no meaning – I can tell you we’ll do better or whatever, but it doesn’t really make the future better.

“My major job is to do good things for the club by actions not by words. So I don’t want to come out to speak to you every day, it doesn’t help, so you have to save my time to focus on the job inside the club.

“Then, on the other side, being negative, of course you can show your emotions, football is all about the emotions of course, but my personal experience is, when I sleep, it’s all gone, because the future is always in your hands.

“I think in the running of a club, negativity is not any use, because if you always regret the past or whatever, it doesn’t help, so only being positive is practical and viable to what we are doing in the club.

“So sometimes I fear the negativity from the fans will impact the staff inside the structure, so I made a lot of efforts to talk to them – don’t listen too much to the fans, focus on your job.

“I use Fabio (Silva) as a good example. Some players, some staff, have the strong mentality to shrug it off and do your own job, that’s the right mentality we want to have. Sometimes I think it may be because Wolves have in history, in the last maybe 30, 50 years, been not so good at the right level and I heard some fans are celebrating the history, record of the 70s, the longest period in the Prem.

“I never think about it, I don’t think it’s something worth celebrating but it reflects maybe where the negativity would have come from because you are always worried, concerned that history will happen again, but I want to say to them, OK now, you have to trust us.

“The five years can tell you something, so in general if you have five years’ good track record, you can maybe do better things in the next five years. People make a difference, so that’s important.”

On the issue of trust, Shi has also called on supporters to give new signings a chance and trust in them.

He added: "There’s something I want to say to our fans. When a new player comes, try to welcome him more, you never know what will happen, you cannot predict.

"Sometimes I feel if they don’t know the name, they feel doubtful or negative, but if you look at the track record of our club for transfers in the last five years, it’s pretty good, I think, maybe one of the best in the Premier League. So sometimes it’s about trusting the player, also about trusting us. We don’t do things wrong very often."