Wolves are set to target another Portuguese coach to replace Nuno Espirito Santo, with former Benfica boss Bruno Lage and ex-Porto chief Vitor Pereira among the contenders for the Molineux role.
The club have announced that Nuno will leave after Sunday's home game against Manchester United with his departure described as 'by mutual consent' by the club, even though he signed a new deal less than a year ago with a significant increase on his initial £3million salary.
Sportsmail revealed last month that Wolves were planning for a future without him and though the timing of the announcement was a surprise to most at the club, relations are said to have become strained with members of the hierarchy. Nevertheless, Nuno is certain to get a rousing reception from the 4,500 at Molineux.
Lage, 45, left Benfica last summer and is thought to have turned down a number of opportunities since.
He led the Lisbon giants to the league title in 2019 and has some experience of English football, working as Carlos Carvalhal's assistant at Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea.
He is a client of agent Jorge Mendes, whose Gestifute group also represent Nuno and a number of Wolves players.
Pereira, meanwhile, is an experienced coach who as well as Porto, has managed Olympiakos, Fenerbahce and Shanghai SIPG. Another on the Wolves radar is believed to be Rui Faria, best known as Jose Mourinho's long-time assistant.
Nuno's staff — assistant head coach Rui Silva, first-team coach Julio Figueroa, first-team rehab coach Joao Lapa, goalkeeping coach Rui Barbosa and fitness coach Antonio Dias — will depart with him after a four-year spell which included promotion from the Championship in 2018 followed by consecutive seventh-place finishes in the Premier League, an FA Cup semi-final in 2019 and a Europa League quarter-final last year.
Sportsmail understands that shortly after lunchtime, Nuno called the players into a meeting room at their Compton training base.
The manager and some members of the squad were said to be emotional as he told them Sunday's game would be their last together. He thanked them for their contributions and was thanked in turn by senior members of the squad.
None of the players had an inkling that the news was coming. Nuno and his staff will continue to be paid under the terms of their contracts until they find employment elsewhere — a sizeable amount thought to be approaching £10m annually.
He has been linked with the vacant managerial position at Tottenham, but it is understood he is not currently in the frame for the position.
Sportsmail also understands tensions had grown between the manager and the club's owners, Chinese conglomerate Fosun. Nuno was said to be dismayed at the club's transfer prospects for the coming summer.
It is believed he was told Wolves would have to be creative in the market, working with loans and needing to sell before bringing others in.