Wolves attacker Diogo Jota has claimed Harry Maguire’s £80 million ($97m) transfer to Manchester United is ‘hard to explain’.
The defender completed his much-anticipated move to Old Trafford earlier this month and the extraordinary fee paid for England international makes him the most expensive defender ever.
And Jota, who will come face to face with Maguire on Monday night when United travel to Wolverhampton, thinks the prices now paid by clubs for the world’s top stars are incredible.
“It (the £80m fee) is hard to explain,” the Portuguese said in an interview with FourFourTwo.
“The market is unreal now in my opinion. But it's nothing to do with me, it is to do with the clubs and it is the moment we are living in. We just have to respect that amount.
“I think Harry Maguire has a lot of quality but I know the players that we have in our team and I trust them,” Jota added ahead of the upcoming Premier League game.
The Red Devils struggled against Wolves last season and failed to beat the West Midlands outfit in any of their three meetings.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men even recorded victories against United twice last year at Molineux, with Jota netting on both occasions.
Despite Wolves’ good record against the Red Devils, the former Atletico Madrid man believes the visitors will pose a difficult challenge on Monday night.
“It’s a new season,” he said. "[Ole Gunnar] Solskjaer has had more time to work with his players - he’s made his own changes.
“In the transfer market they’ve tried to improve their team so we know it’s going to be very hard for us. We have to understand that we will face a very big team.”
Wolves ultimately finished seventh last season and secured European football for the club in 2019-20.
While supporters will no doubt be hoping their side can push on and challenge for a top-six place this campaign, Jota was more cautious in his assessment of Wolves’ aims over the coming nine months.
“I think it is too soon about the final classification. We got seventh place, it’s true, but it is very hard to get it again,” he said.
“We have loads of teams that spend more money than us, trying to achieve that position. So we have to realise it’s not going to be easy to get seventh. We go game by game and in the end we will see."