Kieran Trippier agrees a free transfer to Wolves and a Championship promotion push
Kieran Trippier is heading for the Championship. The 35-year-old right-back has agreed to join Wolves on a free transfer after leaving Newcastle, trading the Premier League for a promotion fight with a club that has just dropped out of it.
Trippier became available when his Newcastle contract ran down, the deal at St James' Park set to expire on 30 June after four and a half years on Tyneside. He has verbally agreed terms on a two-year contract at Molineux, with the option of a third, and the transfer is expected to go through once he completes a medical. That part will likely wait until he is back from a family holiday next week.
Why Wolves moved for him
Wolves go into next season in the second tier after relegation, and manager Rob Edwards has put experience near the top of his shopping list. He sees Trippier as a dressing-room leader who can steady a squad chasing promotion back at the first time of asking. Beating off interest from clubs on the continent to sign a player of this standing for nothing is the kind of early-window win a relegated side rarely lands.
And there is a lot to point to. Trippier came up through Manchester City's academy without breaking into the first team, found his level on loan and then permanently at Burnley, and earned the move to Tottenham that made his name. He started the 2019 Champions League final for Spurs, the night they lost 2-0 to Liverpool in Madrid, then joined Atletico Madrid for around 20 million pounds and won La Liga in 2020-21. Newcastle paid 12 million pounds plus add-ons to bring him back to England in January 2022.
From a Wembley trophy to a second-tier rebuild
His time on Tyneside ended on a high almost nobody at the club had touched in living memory. In March 2025 he played the full 90 minutes as Newcastle won the EFL Cup, their first domestic trophy in 70 years, swinging in the corner that led to the opening goal and lifting the cup as a former captain. For a player who also retired from England with 54 caps after the Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain, it was a fitting note to bow out on.
Dropping a division at 35 reads like a wind-down, but the framing at Molineux is the opposite. Edwards wants someone who has played in finals and title run-ins to set the standard for a younger group, and Trippier still delivers from set pieces as well as almost any full-back in the country. If Wolves go straight back up, signing him on a free will look like one of the smarter calls of their summer. If they stall, the questions about building around a 35-year-old will come quickly. Either way, it is a notable name to get the rebuild moving.
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