Arsenal are Pedro Neto’s favourite team and Wolves sensation had trials at Manchester United as Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho are proved right

Once every so often, a young player emerges from outside the big six and captures everyone’s attention almost overnight.

This season, it’s Pedro Neto, the 20-year-old Wolves forward striking fear into Premier League opposition with his quite-frankly frightening speed and agility.

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The only difference with Neto is this hasn’t happened overnight. No, the unearthing of this diamond in the rough has been years in the making.

This is a player who Arsenal and Manchester United both knew about as early as five years ago.

Indeed, a 15-year-old Neto had trials at United while he was in Braga’s youth team back in 2016 – but unlike most of Portugal at the time, the Red Devils weren’t buying into the hype.

Then in 2017, Arsenal launched a £13.2million bid to sign a 16-year-old Neto under the orders of Arsene Wenger, only to pull out when Braga asked for £17.6m.

That was a real shame, given Neto’s feelings towards the Gunners and Wenger were mutual.

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The forward told talkSPORT in January earlier this year: “When I was a kid growing up watching English football my favourite team was Arsenal.

“Because with Arsene Wenger I thought besides winning trophies they played very good football.

“I’m with Wolverhampton and am very happy! Of course, it’s the best club in England now.”

Now, Wenger and Jose Mourinho historically don’t agree on a lot of things, but they both wanted to sign a teenage Neto.

Mourinho, being Portuguese, knew all about Neto and reports claim the former Manchester United boss tried to reignite the Red Devils’ interest while he was at Old Trafford.

That would explain Mourinho’s comments about Neto last season, when asked about why Tanguy Ndombele seemingly couldn’t be bothered to try and keep up with the Wolves star.

“Pedro Neto is very fast,” Mourinho said. “He is very fast. Wolves do fantastic work in the selection of the profile of their players.

“They know what they want, they choose a profile of player adapted to the qualities of the team.

“We had 65 per cent of the ball and we almost double their number of passes, but they are very fast.

“Adama Traore, Pedro Neto, Diogo Jota, Daniel Podence, they are all very, very fast and was impossible for Tanguy to get him.”

Mourinho and Neto share the same agent, Jorge Mendes, but not even that could prevent the winger from signing for Lazio on loan in 2017.

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As if to emphasise that Neto didn’t just burst onto the scene this season, he’s already got a footballer’s customary two years in the wilderness out of the way.

The Portugal youth star played just four Serie A games during his two-year loan at Lazio – forcing ‘Uncle Jorge’ to revert back to what he knew best: Wolves.

Since arriving at Molineux in the summer of 2019 for around £16.1m, Neto has emerged as one of the Premier League’s brightest young players.

Having impressed in his 29 top-flight appearances last season, the £40m departure of Diogo Jota to Liverpool allowed Neto to make the left wing position his own this term.

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In 2020/21, he has five goals and five assists in the top-flight, including brilliant solo winners against Chelsea and Southampton.

Neto will almost certainly be among the PFA Young Player of the Year nominees come the end of the season – at which point he will be worth significantly more than just £16m for whoever wants to try and sign him.

Could he follow Jota to a big club? Will Arsenal and Man United try to right the wrongs of their past transfer mistakes?

Who knows, but if you’re one of the few people yet to discover just how good Neto is, you can hear him in action live on talkSPORT this Saturday at 5.30pm when Wolves travel to Aston Villa.