Nuno Espirito Santo has signed a new three-year deal as head coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Wolves finished seventh in the Premier League last season and reached the Europa League quarter-finals – a performance for which the Portuguese has been rewarded with a new contract at Molineux until 2023. “Nuno really is the special one to Wolves. He’s brought us a clear identity,” chairman Jeff Shi said. “All the work we have done to build our first team over the past three years started from the identity created in Nuno’s head.” Nuno’s men begin their new season against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane on this week’s Monday Night Football (6pm local time kick-off), and the coach is relishing the prospect of challenging the top six after a busy close season of recruitment which saw the club break their transfer record to sign Fabio Silva from Porto for £35m. “It’s something normal in football,” he said. “It happens in all the seasons. It happened since we arrived from the Championship. The players that started with us, Danny Batth was the captain of the club. He was with us in the beginning, we don’t forget about all the people involved in these three seasons of hard work and success, especially the way the fans have enjoyed it. “A lot of people have been here, a lot of people have come in. Things have changed, the team has evolved, has grown, the squad, it’s normal. After that, it’s situations that happen in football. Players go to different clubs because they need to, some of them want to, but there are some people who will never be forgotten. “When new players come in, it’s the expectation of trying to help those players become better so they can help the team and grow, because the club is growing, the project is moving forward step by step, each day with the same ambition of becoming a big, big club. “Now, for example, if our players go to big, big clubs in the Premier League, it’s a sign that they have been working good and hard, so they look at options to become players of top-six teams. Let’s look at us and what we know is that what we did in the past can only show us the way to the future. Like a pack.”