ENGLISH Premier League side Wolverhampton are pondering a loan move for Warriors star Tawanda Chirewa, with club coach Gary O’Neil yesterday admitting he is yet to make a decision on the attacker’s future.
The 20-year-old Chirewa is one of Wolves’ most promising young players and enjoyed his breakthrough campaign last season, after initially signing for the under-21s from Ipswich.
However, Wolves’ depth in attacking areas means Chirewa may be allowed to leave on loan and a decision will be made before the start of the new season, with O’Neil admitting he believes it will be a positive move for the player.
“That is still undecided,” O’Neil said on the Express & Star’s Wolves podcast when asked if Chirewa would leave on loan.
“He has shown potential, but obviously, we have more attacking players available at this moment than we did last year.
“Maybe it will be more difficult for him to push up, not to say it is impossible, but we will do what is right for him.”
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Chirewa, one of the two Zimbabweans at Wolves, is currently with the senior team in the United States for pre-season camp, where he has been spotted wearing a jersey number 28, from his previous number 62 which he wore as an academy player in the senior squad.
He started in the 3-1 friendly match defeat against fellow EPL side Crystal Palace on Thursday, lasting 73 minutes of the field before he was substituted for Mario Lemina.
The England-born star made his debut for Wolves in the FA Cup against Brentford on January 5 last season following injuries to the likes of Hwang Hee-chan, Pedro Neto and Matheus Cunha.
It was on January 22, 2024 that Chirewa made his league debut, aged 20 years and 103 days, versus Brighton & Hove Albion.
Overall, he has played eight times in his English Premier League career.
Within just weeks of signing for Wolves, Chirewa was invited to start training with the first team and clearly O’Neil felt he had something about him to have given eight appearances, including in matches against Arsenal and Manchester City.
Granted, they were cameo appearances, but Chirewa showed he is a huge talent and if he knuckles down, then he might just make himself an option for O’Neil next season.
But for his development, the obvious next step would be for him to go out on loan to a team where he is guaranteed first team football.
He is expected to make the Warriors squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers early next month.
Zimbabwe are in Group J of the qualifiers together with Cameroon, Kenya and Namibia.
All the games will be played between September and November, with the top two teams qualifying to the Afcon finals which will be played in Morocco next year.
Chirewa made his debut for Zimbabwe in June in a World Cup qualifier against Lesotho, starting the game and playing 68 minutes.
It was in the second game against South Africa four days later that the forward sparkled, scoring his first international goal.
Despite the Warriors losing the match 3-1 to Bafana Bafana, Chirewa caught the eye of many and was arguably the best player on the park that day.
Meanwhile, Chirewa’s Warriors teammate at Wolves Leon Chiwome is expected to stay at Molineux Stadium after he recently signed a new deal with the club until the summer of 2028.
The 18-year-old played four times for Wolves last season, including two starts in the Premier League, before picking up an injury in training in April that ended his season.
Speaking about Chiwome’s new deal, sporting director Matt Hobbs told the club website: “Leon stepped up last year in a tough time, when we had some injuries and showed the potential he has.
“At the moment, the plan is for him to stay with us, develop under Gary [O’Neil, head coach], his staff and James [Collins] with the under-21s, but while the window is open, there are other possibilities.”
Chiwome, who has represented England at junior national team level, is yet to play for Zimbabwe.
He was called up to the Warriors squad for the World Cup qualifying matches against Rwanda and Nigeria in November last year.
However, he asked to be excused for the two matches.