The transformation of Vitinha: from Wolves castoff to world's most effective central midfielder

Not only are you bad, but you're hurting me." The words, there, or so it was claimed, of Lionel Messi; and however you spin it, a fairly tough six-month performance review from the greatest player of all time and your own footballing idol.

- Barney Ronay

Back in February 2023 Vitinha was very quick to deny that any such training ground altercation had taken place between himself and Messi, whatever the reports in the French football press at the time (another version of that conversation has Messi saying: "Do you see? This is why you're shit.").

Vitinha was clear: never happened. All the same this shadow interaction was cast at the time as a glimpse of the wider unease among the aristos, the powdered wigs of that star-system dressing room. Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé were, it was said, "disappointed with the quality" of the club's most recent recruits.

Given those new arrivals included Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz, two-thirds of the Champions League-winning midfield, that disappointment has now presumably been served up very, very cold at yesterday's victory buffet in Munich.

But whatever the extent of those tensions there is no doubt Vitinha was still idling on the runway at that point: 23 years old and still all promise, a mix of obvious weak spots - slow, physically slight - and obvious super-strengths, most notably the strangely intimate and tender relationship with the ball.

Fast forward to Saturday and the evisceration of Inter in Munich has confirmed his altered status. Vitinha is now the most effective central midfielder in the world, a Champions League-winning fulcrum and the key lubricant in Luis Enrique's treble-winners.

Everyone likes this kind of story, the late bloomer who offers an on-this-day angle at each fresh note of triumph. Let's do it then. Four years ago Vitinha was coming on as a late sub for Wolves in a 1-0 defeat at Everton, his last loan appearance before Wolves passed up on a low-cost option to buy him.