Wolverhampton Wanderers were rock bottom of the Premier League heading into last year’s World Cup break back in November but were rescued in the end by Julen Lopetegui, who arrived at Molineux having guided Sevilla to three consecutive top-four finishes in La Liga.
Lopetegui worked wonders with the Old Gold as his side climbed from 20th to 13th and finished seven points from safety. However, Wolves did end the campaign with the worst goal return in the league, having scored just 31 times in 38 games.
Nevertheless, despite this woeful record in front of goal, Lopetegui’s last act as manager was to sell Wolves’ top goalscorer in the Premier League era.
Raul Jimenez’s statistics at Wolves
Raul Jimenez was one of Wolves’ first major acquisitions after being promoted back to the Premier League in 2018. Having initially signed the Mexico international on a season-long loan, the Midlands club made the move permanent for a record fee of £30m, although Jimenez has since dropped down to being the fourth most-expensive player in Wolves’ history.
The centre-forward quickly cemented himself as a legend at Molineux, scoring 57 goals and registering 24 assists in all competitions across five different seasons, although a nasty head collision during the 2020/21 campaign hampered his ability to add to this tally.
Regardless, Jimenez broke two club records by scoring more Premier League goals than anyone else for Wolves while also becoming the side’s top-scorer in Premier League history, with 40 in total. Former Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo described Jimenez as a “special player” during his stint in charge of the attacker.
Unfortunately, in his final season with Wolves, the 32-year-old scored only three goals in 20 matches but failed to find the net once in the league. In the end, the striker was sold to Fulham for £5.5m, which is just less than six times what the club signed him for four years ago.
Jimenez’s stats this season
After years of yoyoing between the Premier League and the Championship, Fulham had finally found stability, maintaining their top-flight status last term by finishing impressively in tenth place.
However, Marco Silva was dealt a massive blow during the summer when the club accepted a £43m bid from Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal for star striker Aleksandr Mitrovic, who managed a 111-goal haul in his six seasons at Craven Cottage. While Jimenez may have initially been signed as a backup, he was quickly handed the number one spot up top due to Mitrovic’s departure.
So far, the move has been disastrous. After the previous campaign’s top-ten finish, the Cottagers are sitting 15th, seven points off the relegation places. Fulham are currently the joint-second-lowest goalscorers in the Premier League too, having converted merely 10 chances in 12 matches.
A late consolation goal in a 3-1 away defeat at Aston Villa prior to the November international break was Jimenez’s only strike of the season so far since moving to London.
In fact, Lopetegui’s decision to offload the Mexican has proven to be the correct one as Hwang Hee-chan has outscored Jimenez this season, having stepped up to become Wolves’ first-choice number ‘9’ in his absence. Hwang is Wolves’ most potent player this term and has outperformed Fulham’s summer signing in a number of key attacking metrics.
Jimenez’s goalscoring statistics had been declining for the past two seasons so it was a wise decision to pass the torch to Hwang and recuperate some of the former’s transfer fee by selling an ageing and declining striker to a Premier League rival.
