“Will be made available,” a journalist hints at Wolve’s star exit, who has “barely played.”

Wolverhampton Wanderers full-back Jonny Castro Otto looks set for a departure from Molineux during the January transfer window.

 

Wolverhampton Wanderers left-back Jonny Castro Otto will be pursued by either a Premier League club or a La Liga club, according to transfer insider Dean Jones, who questions how many clubs will bid for his services at Molineux.

Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil hasn’t used the defender as much as the player would have liked during the 2023–24 season and may look to offload him during the 2024 winter transfer window.

Jonny has struggled to find regular gametime since the end of the 2022–23 season, when he struggled for minutes under Julen Lopetegui. The Wolves already have depth at right-back and left-back, implying that a replacement will not necessarily complement Jonny’s departure.

 

Jonny’s Wolves career has been a mixed bag.

Jonny will look back on his Wolves career with frustration, having initially become a regular member of the side during their most successful spell in recent history under the guidance of Nuno Espirito Santo. The 29-year-old arrived at Molineux on a season-long loan from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2018, following the Wanderers’ Championship title-winning campaign of 2017/18.

In January 2019, Wolves turned Jonny’s loan into a permanent deal, having established himself as the clear first-choice option at left wing-back despite being a right-footer. The former Celta Vigo star was signed in a then-club record-equalling £18 million deal and signed a contract until the summer of 2023. After helping Wolves achieve two consecutive seventh-placed Premier League finishes during the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons, Jonny hoped to push on and become one of the continent’s leading full-backs.

However, the former Spain international would suffer damage to his anterior cruciate ligament in the Wanderers’ Europa League last-16 victory over Olympiacos in August 2020. After a long road to recovery following surgery, Jonny returned to Wolves’ 0-0 stalemate with Leicester in February 2021. However, two months later, the defender suffered a recurrence of the same injury and would be out until February 2022, with Bruno Lage now in charge at Molineux.

Wolverhampton Wanderers left-back Jonny Castro Otto
Jonny would remain a regular until the Portuguese head coach’s sacking in October 2022 and found starts under replacement Lopetegui hard to come by. O’Neil prefers Nelson Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri in the full-back positions, with Matt Doherty and Hugo Bueno both ahead of the experienced defender in the pecking order.

Talking Wolves presenter Dave Azzopardi recently suggested to GIVEMESPORT (November 26) that Jonny’s time with the Wolves was over ahead of the 2024 winter transfer window. On December 3, Express & Star journalist Liam Keen revealed that the Spaniard didn’t travel to Wolves’ fixture against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium the previous afternoon due to a ‘training ground incident’.