Matt Jackson says Joao Virginia has the qualities to make an immediate impact at Wolves, having brought the Portuguese stopper to Molineux this week.
Former Everton keeper Virginia, who has signed a three-year deal, brings valuable experience of English football to a squad aiming to make an immediate return to the Premier League.
And Jackson feels Virginia’s professionalism and familiarity with the English game make him a natural fit for the Old Gold, with the technical director excited by the competition the latest addition brings to the goalkeeping department.
On bringing Virginia to Wolves
“Joao’s been brilliant and certainly quality-wise, he can come in and be really competitive in that group, which is exactly what we want. We want them all to drive each other to the highest standards possible.
“His homegrown status is obviously massive for us because when we talk about the shakeup of quality and about someone who can come in and settle straight away, he has that with the previous experiences in England and with the type of man that he is.
“He’s just a very intelligent, great professional, level-headed player, and everything that you’d want really – no headlines whatsoever, which is always a good thing for a goalkeeper.”
On having experience of the English game
“His previous experience in England is important because every goalkeeper should think, ‘I am going to play the next game’, because anything can happen in that department.
“That’s exactly how it should be and the last thing we need with the club starting well and going well across two competitions is someone who’s coming in to transition to what is a very difficult league to understand and culturally can be different for foreign players. For him, it’s going to be an natural transition because he’s very intelligent, articulate, a fluent English-speaking player, and he is a perfect fit for us.”
On getting straight into action
“He’s ready. He’s been playing, he’s trained hard and we know the character he is, we get his physical reports, and they go through the testing, so we know he’s ready. We’ve got no worries and no concerns whatsoever.
“He’s looked really good. He knows exactly what he is, and we know he’s one where you sign them and you never have to worry about them.”
On goalkeeping changes this summer
“It’s been really difficult with the goalkeeping department this summer. It’s been difficult for us, and it’s been difficult for the players as well, but it is different for goalkeepers in the way that pecking orders work and they like to have some understanding of where they’re at.
“But we’ve worked hard on changing the situation, changing the culture, and Dan’s departure has allowed us to do that, and I just think we’ll be a lot stronger for this shakeup.
“The competition in the goalkeeping department is really good. It’ll drive training standards and it’ll be great for likes of Josh Gracey and Lewys Benjamin to see those standards as well and to be pulled along with them. They will all make each other better, and there is this collective understanding in goalkeepers that they do try to make each other better and they all benefit from it.”
