Jordan James says he turned down possible Premier League moves to join Wolverhampton Wanderers last month, and the Wales midfielder has also closed the door on a Wrexham switch in the most recent transfer window. James is on loan at Championship promotion hopefuls Wolves from French club Rennes.
James spent last season on loan at Leicester City after being heavily linked with Wrexham before signing for the Foxes. Asked whether Wrexham had been a potential destination in the latest window, he said: “That ship sailed I think. It was on last year.” He added: “I’m glad I went to Leicester, I had such a good season – I enjoyed it so much.”
At Leicester, James was named player of the year after scoring 11 goals in 34 appearances, but he could not save the club from relegation to League One. “Leicester is a club that I love dearly, they gave me the most confidence to go out and perform,” he said. “Obviously it didn’t go the way I wanted it to [for the team]. Probably if we’d done a bit better I would have thought about staying, but obviously we got relegated so I had to look elsewhere and Wolves was the place straight away.”
The former Birmingham City youngster is expected to start in Wales’ Nations League opener against Portugal on Thursday. His only starts so far this season have been in the EFL Cup, with his six league appearances for Wolves coming from the bench.
Wolves have an option to buy James when his loan ends next summer, and he says the plan is to reach the top flight with the Molineux club. “It’s a big club, a club that’s looking to get promoted and the place I want to be is the Premier League,” James said. “I know that I’m good enough to be there. It’s just obviously showing that and being at a club that were able to give me that opportunity and I feel like Wolves is the place.”
Asked whether he could have moved to the Premier League this summer, James added: “There were a lot of opportunities. I had a lot of offers on the table. I just didn’t think it was right. I didn’t want to go to the Premier League and be in a losing team again. I’ve been in a losing team now with Birmingham and with Leicester, I want to win games.”