Gary O’Neil won’t be seeing much of Santiago Bueno before Wolverhampton Wanderers return to action.
But if there is one summer signing who the Wolves boss needs to hit the ground running, it is probably the Uruguay centre-back.
It seems unlikely Bueno will start against Liverpool on Saturday after just a couple of training sessions with his new Premier League colleagues. He is absent from Wolves’ training ground after linking up with his Uruguay team-mates and will have just a short window to get to know them before his new club returns to action next weekend.
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Yet the evidence of the first four games of the season suggests the former Girona defender will be needed sooner rather than later.
That is not to downplay the strengths of Maximilian Kilman, the hugely talented Wolves captain, or Craig Dawson, who did more than any other January signing to ensure the club retained their Premier League status last season.
Things have changed, however, since Gary O’Neil arrived with the aim of making Wolves a front-footed team. If the head coach is to realise his ambition of crafting a side capable of solving any tactical problem the game throws at them, he will need a variety of centre-backs.
On confirming the signing of the 24-year-old, sporting director Matt Hobbs described Bueno as “a front-footed defender, which we’ve seen is what Gary likes, and he can cover the space in behind”.
O’Neil will be banking on those qualities in games like the one at Selhurst Park, when the “space in behind” was exploited by Crystal Palace’s talented forwards to inflict a bruising 3-2 defeat — another loss when much of what Wolves did showed signs of promise.
The same was true in the 4-1 home loss to Brighton when in a manic start to the second half, Wolves’ desire to remain permanently on the front foot allowed Roberto De Zerbi’s men to lure Dawson, Kilman and the rest of the defence beyond the halfway line before using their superior pace to punish the hosts’ over-adventure.
If Hobbs’ assessment turns out to be accurate, O’Neil and the club’s supporters will hope Bueno can make a difference if a similar situation arises in future.
The same is true of Toti, who remains relatively raw in the Premier League, with just 14 starts in the competition.
But the 24-year-old has done well enough at centre-back — and in his brief stint at left-back under Julen Lopetegui — to win a place in Roberto Martinez’s Portugal squad. With four central defenders in Wolves’ senior squad, Toti is a genuine contender for a regular starting position.
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There is little doubt that the former Estoril defender is the most athletic option available to O’Neil at the heart of his defence, so if Wolves persist with their front-foot approach, Toti’s attributes could turn out to be extremely useful.
It would be foolish to consign either Dawson or Kilman mentally to the substitutes’ bench given their importance to Wolves in recent seasons.
Kilman has grown from a non-League footballer, signed for £40,000 ($50,000), into the subject of £30million offers from Italian champions Napoli in the summer.
His classy reading of the game and use of the ball, as well as generally solid defending and ultra-professionalism, have been recognised with the captain’s armband after the exit of Ruben Neves.
Alongside him, Dawson’s experience and Premier League knowhow — not to mention his committed, physical brand of defending — helped Lopetegui turn Wolves from a leaky soft touch in the first half of last season into a side who were tough to play against, at least at home, after last season’s World Cup break.
But the former Rochdale defender is 33. Explosive pace has never been part of his game, even when he was in his prime at West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United, so he is unlikely to get quicker now.
He and Kilman will still have vital roles to play in the season ahead and probably in future seasons, too — they have qualities neither Bueno nor Toti possess.
Equally, the opening four games of the season have offered clear signs that the pair might not be the right partnership for every match. For that reason, O’Neil will want all four centre-back options to be at the top of their game and ready for games that suit them best.
That means Bueno will need to be ready quickly.
(Top photo: Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)