Max Kilman agrees new five-year Wolves contract

The 26-year-old has been subject to interest from Napoli this summer, with Wolves rejecting a £30million bid from the Italian champions.

After turning down that offer,Wolves opened talks with Kilman over a new deal and terms have now been agreed with the centre-back.

Sporting director Matt Hobbs said: “This is what Max deserves. We’ve been talking to Max since the end of last season and his evolution, not just through the club, but through his role in the first-team, has built a strong foundation for him.

“There was lots of interest in Max, we had several offers, but we haven’t shifted in wanting him to stay. We believe he’s the soul of the team, having been here for a long time now, so he was never a player we considered selling.

“In what’s been an unsettled time for the club, announcing a new head coach and our captain committing long-term shows the noise outside doesn’t match what we feel is going on inside.

“Although the manager changed, nothing changed for Max. He’s been very excited by what he’s seen from Gary and his team the first couple of days. Then we obviously told Gary and he was keen to get it done because he was going to be his captain, so we got it done as soon as we could.”

Kilman has also been named captain for the upcoming season, following the departures of Ruben Neves and Conor Coady.

Hobbs added: “His journey almost mirrors mine. I signed Max into the academy and giving him a new, long-term deal as sporting director, our paths have aligned slightly, so it’s been really nice. It was great work done by the academy, Rob Edwards at the time, and Nuno was great for him.

“Max’s temperament also helped because a lot of boys now are desperate to get out on loan, but because Max came to us late, we felt the best thing was for him to stay and be around the best players. The journey is different for everyone but this one has been perfect for Max.

“There aren’t many of these stories and he’s probably not heralded as much as he should be. We know what we’ve got, he’s not one to put himself out there, but everyone at the club has so much time for Max because of the person he is. We all believe in him and the length of it shows that, but also shows how much he loves the club.”