Nuno Espirito Santo ready to give Raul Jimenez ‘big hug’ when Spurs visit Wolves

Nuno Espirito Santo is looking forward to giving Wolves striker Raul Jimenez a “big hug” when the pair see each other on Sunday.

Nuno is making his Molineux return with new club Tottenham, three months after a four-year spell at the midlands club came to an end.

The Portuguese, who won promotion to the Premier League, delivered back-to-back seventh-place finishes and oversaw a run to the Europa League quarter-finals, was in charge last term when the Mexican striker suffered a fractured skull against Arsenal in December.

It was a sickening incident that could have cost Jimenez his life, but he is now back in action and expected to start against Spurs on Sunday afternoon.

The pair have kept in touch since Nuno’s departure and it will be a happy reunion.

“First of all everyone in football is delighted that Raul is back after that situation,” Nuno said. “It is so good to see him back and playing football, that is the most important part because it was really, really serious.

“I met him not so long ago, we had a chance to speak. Huge admiration for Raul and I will be delighted to give him a big hug on Saturday.

“We felt it when that happened, everyone felt it that was there.

“The friendship which I and everyone has, it was very traumatic for everyone involved. It puts things into perspective, like the pandemic puts everything into perspective. We have to enjoy life.”

Spurs will look to build on their impressive start to the Premier League last week, when they beat Manchester City 1-0 with a rousing performance.

They hit a bump in the road with a 1-0 defeat in the Europa Conference League play-off against Pacos de Ferreira, albeit with a completely changed XI, and Nuno says they are building something.

“We are building our idea, but I don’t see a variety of systems because the idea is always the same,” he added.

“It’s to be compact, solid and take advantage of the talent that we have, so we are building it but I truly believe that routines create habits and habits transform into character.

“We want to build this character and we’ll stick with the same ideas that we showed from the previous game.

“I think we did a fantastic job against City, not so good on Thursday, that gives us the chance to realise the mistakes that we make, but we stick to our own ideas.”