Mario Lemina: I love everything at Wolves

The midfielder has bolstered the club’s options in the middle of the park after signing on Friday, before making his debut off the bench in the victory over West Ham on Saturday.

Lemina has revealed he almost moved to Molineux during his time at Southampton and has expressed his delight at finally making the switch.

He said: “Four years ago I was talking with them. I didn’t happen and I was really upset about it because I wanted to join.

“I love everything here, apart from the weather. Wolves – character, players with a lot of personality and that’s what I like. I’ve seen them play a lot of times with good strikers, good midfielders, good defenders, I just really like it. A club with ambition.

“It was easy for me to come, I was really happy to talk with the manager before, and we did everything to make it happen.

“It was a positive conversation. He likes the type of player I am and I like the type of manager he is because he works hard and wants to play, and that’s what I like. We’ve got such a good group, a good team, and that’s why I wanted to be part of the group.

“When I came with Southampton we lost against Wolves. It was a tough game, and I really liked the attitude of the players, and the crowd too, they really get behind the players.

“That’s what I like, why I wanted to be here, and now they’re on my side. We won the game, and they were really happy with that. We want to give them joy every game and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Lemina impressed in his short cameo against the Hammers and made several key tackles in the tight 1-0 win.

He added: “I’m really happy with this win. We have been waiting for that and had it. I had my debut, and it was tough, but we won and were really happy.

“It was a busy day. When I came to the training ground, they were already training, so I just came after and trained for five minutes. It was really quick. They’re good guys, they really welcomed me, and I’m really happy with them.

“Since I came, the first conversation we had was that I was going to play straight away. I said I was ready for that, I’m here for that, and if I had to come in, I would be ready, no problem.

“We had to do a lot of things, medical stuff, signing stuff, it was a really busy day. At the end, I’m really happy I’m here and we won the game.”

When asked for his message to the fans, Lemina said: “Thank you for the welcome. I hope I’m going to make them happy with this signing. I’m going to try to do my best every time, fight for the badge. They will see, I’m not going to lie, I’m never going to cheat, I’ll be the player I have to be.”