Monday 16 April 2018 17:34, UK
Wolves managing director Laurie Dalrymple is not simply content with being in the Premier League, he wants the club to be among the elite in English football.
Wolves had their return to the top flight after a six-year absence confirmed on Saturday after Fulham were held to a 1-1 draw with Brentford.
The club need just one more point to be crowned Championship champions after they beat Birmingham 2-0 on Sunday.
One of their stars of the season, Diogo Jota, scored his 17th goal of the campaign, and Dalrymple is adamant Wolves will not be looking to sell their best players as they look to make an immediate impression in the top division.
"There is no pressure whatsoever [to sell]," Dalrymple told Sky Sports News. "We are building a club and a team for the future so it would be somewhat undermining to that strategy if we then let our prize assets walk out the door within ten minutes of achieving the first phase of this project.
"We are fully aware that promotion into the Premier League was a major part of where we want to take this club.
"But this is not the end. Promotion was not the end-game. We want to compete for a long time and position ourselves within the elite in English football.
"In order to do that we have to build a squad and a club that is capable to do that so we want to bring the very best people into this group and keep them."
Wolves' Chinese owners have spent heavily this season to help the club achieve promotion, although their player recruitment has been questioned by other Championship clubs.
Mendes represents, among others in the Wolves squad, head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota and Ivan Cavaleiro, but Dalrymple is confident they have done nothing wrong and is ready to speak to Premier League officials about Mendes.
"He is a close friend of chairman and a friend of the owner," Mendes said. "He is someone that they got advice from when they bought the club.
"We utilise a number of different agents and sources and will continue to do that.
"I will gladly have that communication channel with the Premier League as and when that arises. I am aware of the fact that we will be talking to them in the very near future and we don't have any problem with that.
"We don't believe, and I don't believe the authorities believe, that we have stepped outside the rules."