“I was having too many touches on the ball,” explained Gomes. “This could harm my team, but at first I didn’t realise. Here, any extra touches can make your team lose a chance to launch a counter-attack. So I’m more dynamic now, with and without the ball.

“I had problems bringing the ball under control and instantly moving it in the direction that I wanted to play, and this is one of the areas where I’ve improved most.”

But there was one aspect of his play that was immediately able to flower at Wolves. The Flamengo team where he made his name was very front loaded, full of strikers and attacking midfielders. Gomes was the player who balanced out the side, running and chasing, covering space and tackling – and the side badly missed him after he made the move.

At Wolves, he has been able to get forward more. “I have more freedom because I have a relationship with the rest of the midfield. When I go forward, the others will stay back, and vice versa.”

The game where he broke forward to best effect was at Tottenham Hotspur in February, where he appeared as an element of surprise to score both goals in his team’s shock 2-1 win.

As fortune would have it, in the crowd to watch him was Dorival Junior, the new Brazil coach. Dorival was already well aware of Gomes and his virtues – he was in charge of Flamengo when they won that Libertadores in 2022.

But scoring two goals in front of the national team boss clearly did him no harm. Gomes was called up in March and made his Brazil debut in the 1-0 win against England, where he ran, covered and snapped into so many tackles that former World Cup winning winger Denilson dubbed him “the pitbull of Wembley”.