Wolverhampton Wanderers moved ten points clear of the bottom three and are now on the verge of securing their place in the Premier League for another season after their 1-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday.

Julen Lopetegui has now won four of his last six matches in charge of the club and the Spaniard is on course to save the side from dropping down to the Championship next season.

The ex-Real Madrid coach replaced Bruno Lage, who had won one of his eight games at the helm at the start of the campaign, and has enjoyed a steady, if unspectacular, debut year with Wolves.

Whilst Lage was rightly relieved of his duties for the disastrous start to the season, the Portuguese boss did enjoy some success with the club and one of his best moves was bringing through young defender Toti Gomes, who scored the winning goal against Villa.

The youngster, who joined from Estoril Praia in 2020, had not made his first-team bow prior to the 46-year-old's arrival at the start of the 2021/22 campaign and worked his way into the manager's plans before making five appearances in the senior side that term.

Toti made his debut in January 2022 and FootballTransfers placed his Expected Transfer Value (xTV) at €400k (£355k) by February of that year.

How much is Toti Gomes worth?

At the time of writing (07/05/2023), FootballTransfers now have his estimated value at €3.7m (£3.3m) and this means that Toti's value has rocketed up by 825% since the start of 2022.

This comes after the defender's emergence as a regular first-team option this season in the Premier League. He has made 14 appearances, and been in the matchday squad for 25 games, and proved himself to be a solid performer.

Toti has averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.91 in the top-flight in 2022/23 – winning 52% of his duels and completing 82% of his attempted passes, which shows that the 24-year-old has been reliable in and out of possession.

Only Ruben Neves (7.28) has averaged a higher rating than the former Portugal U20 international in the Wolves squad and the enforcer could use his experience this season as a springboard to propel himself into being a regular starter next term.

Conor Coady once described the £5k-per-week ace as a "cracking" person and a player who is "improving" every day, which suggests that Toti has the mentality and ability to continue to develop in the months and years to come.

Therefore, Wolves have unearthed a gem in the Portuguese warrior and Lage should be thanked for the huge role he played in identifying the youngster's potential in 2021/22, as his value and status has soared since.