Wolves boss Bruno Lage impressed by Toti Gomes display

Sunday’s start against Norwich was only the 23-year-old’s third Premier League appearance and his first senior minutes since February 5, after initially impressing when he returned from loan in January.

Gomes was the stand-out defender for Wolves in the 1-1 draw and Lage was delighted what what he saw. “That’s the kind of player we are happy to have in our squad,” Lage said. “He works hard every day and wants to improve and learn. Every time he comes and plays he has a good performance.

“I’m happy with him because he deserves that.”

Gomes’s future is up in the air this summer as Lage attempts a summer rebuild, but his chances of remaining with Wolves may improve with the likely departure of Romain Saiss.

As Lage looks ahead to building that squad, the key word for him has been consistency after Wolves’ disappointing final third of the campaign followed a superb start.

“The Premier League is about that – it’s so important we have consistency and that comes with hard work,” Lage added.

“We now need to organise ourselves and understand who will play next season and which players continue with us.

“We have a lot of players out of contract but I can only say good things about them. Without a contract maybe some of them could give up but no-one did that, so I’m proud to be their manager. You can see the kind of men we have here.

“We need to understand what team we want to build next season, whether we finish eighth or ninth, the main thing is to look forward. We want to finish in this position (eighth).”

Lage made the brave call to substitute captain Conor Coady at half-time against Norwich, but the boss insists it was nothing but a tactical move.

“It was a tactical decision,” he said. “After they scored we tried to understand how the game goes. They will try to close the lines and defend hard and near the box.

“We needed to take a decision and change a little bit. I preferred in that moment to continue with Boly because he’s faster than Coady and can win the aerial duels against the striker. It’s nothing special, it’s a decision. Coady two games ago gave us a point against Chelsea, so it’s nothing, just a tactical decision to try to improve the team.”