SSaturday’s defeat at home to Brentford means Wolves have picked up just two points in 17 games. No team in the history of the English Football League, in any division, has managed to get off to a worse start. To reach 11 points, the record low for a Premier League season set by Derby County in 2007-08, would require significant improvement.
How could this happen? Wolves finished last season in 16th place, having recovered after a poor start. When Vitor Pereira took over on December 19 last year, the team was in second place with nine points from 16 matches. They took 23 points from the final 22 games of the season and effectively ended any possibility of relegation with a run of six straight wins in the spring. How does a team go from averaging nearly one point a game to a tenth of that? The landing is unusual.
There have been departures in the summer, with Matthews Cunha joining Manchester United, Rayan Ait Nouri moving to Manchester City, Fabio Silva being sold to Borussia Dortmund, Gonzalo Guedes leaving for Real Sociedad, and Pablo Sarabia and Nelson Semedo – 115 league games between them last season – leaving on a free. But that in itself shouldn’t be enough to send wolves into free fall.
But last summer was not a one-time event. The Wolves have been selling talent and haven’t really replaced it in a couple of years. Pedro Neto, Maximilian Kellmann and Mario Lemina left the previous season. Matheus Nunes, Ruben Neves and Nathan Collins were all gone the season before that. A team can tolerate a certain level of reduction for a while, but there comes a point at which critical mass is reached. It’s not about the quality of the team per se, although that clearly plays a role, as much as it is about the perception of decline.
Matt Doherty, who appeared distraught after Saturday’s match, explained that it was time for the players to decide whether history would deem them cowards. The meaning was clear. At least some of his teammates are considering an exit in January. Others may have given up mentally. It’s much easier to accept what now seems like an inevitable downfall if the player can tell himself that he wasn’t really trying after all and no one else was either. It’s a way to deflect blame: How can we perform in that environment? Doherty doesn’t have to be wrong for these players to get a point. Wolves have become an impossible place to play.
It never starts out bad. They caused Manchester City some problems on the opening day before losing 4-0. They lost the next three league matches by one goal. A 3-1 home defeat to Leeds may have started to raise serious concerns, but Wolves followed that up by beating Everton in the League Cup and then drawing with Tottenham and Brighton in the league. With two promoted clubs in the next two games, there seemed a realistic possibility that they could drag themselves towards respectability. But they were physically exhausted against Sunderland, losing 2-0, then allowing a 95th-minute winner after coming back from 2-0 down to equalize against Bournemouth. Thus, the wolves’ season collapsed. They have scored just two goals in eight league matches since then. No team has really outdone them, but the fight has left them, exemplified by Jorgen Strand-Larsen who missed a penalty on Saturday.
Following Pereira’s departure came Rob Edwards, coming off a Middlesbrough side that looked well placed for promotion from the Championship. Although he did something similar when he left Forest Green to take over at Watford earlier in his career, the move seemed driven by a desire to try to save Wolves, the club he supports and for whom he played 100 league games. He may have been born on Christmas Day, but so far it seems unlikely that he will perform a miracle. Having dropped Luton, his reputation may never recover.
Chairman Geoff Shi resigned unexpectedly on Saturday after nearly a decade in the role, although he continues as chairman and chief executive of Fosun, which owns Wolves. The reasons for his resignation are unclear, although there are ongoing protests by fans against his rule. He has been replaced, pending full-time appointment, by Nathan Shea, who is no relation. Whoever comes in will face a fan base angry at the way the club has been run over the past three years.
Perhaps Wolves believed that even after weakening their squad with sales, they would still be good enough to finish above the three promoted teams. The struggles of the next three teams have certainly helped them over the past two seasons. But with Sunderland and Leeds starting the season well, Wolves have been thrown adrift. They are 16 points away from safety. Survival already seems a hopeless hope. All that’s left to do is try to surpass Derby’s record low.
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