Can the Wolves pay their way to victory or will they fall short?

It’s fair to say that the rise of Wolverhampton Wanderers in the last few years has been fairly momentous in the past few years. Having previously been synonymous with disappointment and failure, with two relegations in two years in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, they have since risen like a fresher risen from their hangover. If anything, there rise has in fact been more rapid than that, the investment of a group of Chinese investors, in ‘Fosun’ in 2016 almost immediately led to their ascent to the upper regions of the Premier League.

This rise, despite the fact that it is undoubtedly impressive in its rapidity, is also highly dubious, to say the least, due to Fosun’s links with the agent Jorge Mendes. You can get a sense of Mendes immediately from how he looks, as someone that should be nowhere near football, but instead as a highly suave mafioso, perfectly happy to slit your throat to secure a deal. This cut-throat attitude has meant that he secured players for Wolves that they should never have been able to even touch, due to the fact that Wolves were still in Championship at the time.

Many expected Wolves to then try to bankroll the Premier League as they had done the Championship

This led to Wolves breaking their transfer budget twice in a couple of seasons, first for Helder Costa, and then, most significantly for the heartbeat of their team even today, Ruben Neves. The fact that Neves was even persuaded to go to Wolves, having been the youngest ever captain of Porto and set for the upper echelons of European football, is surprising, not least due to the fact that surely no one in the world would ever want to live in Wolverhampton. But Mendes’ ingenuity persuaded him and Neves, combined with the man who looks like he was a bear in a past life and should be still, Nuno Espirito Santo (the manager and another Mendes client) easily elevated them to the Premier League within a couple of seasons.

Many expected Wolves to then try to bankroll the Premier League as they had done the Championship, but instead they largely kept the same team that they had been promoted with. This was perhaps in response to accusations of foul-play that had come from fellow Championship sides, in Aston Villa and Leeds, something that is surprising in reflection of some of the signings that these clubs have made in recent years (the fact that Tyrone Mings cost £25 million still baffles me). Some signings were made that undoubtedly improved the team, however, chief among them Raul Jimenez, someone who’s playing style is the opposite of the ‘flair’ and ‘spice’ that is for some reason associated with every South American Premier League player.

Instead of this, Jimenez’s gifts are in hard graft and finishing, something that rendered him Wolves’ top goalscorer last season, and a vital cog in Nuno’s Premier League machine. Jimenez’s vitality was mainly due to the fact that Nuno’s Premier League machine was rather different to his one that so characterised the team’s promotion to the Premier League from the Championship. Rather than simply sticking to an attacking 3-4-3 that led the team to be ripped apart in the opening stages of the season, Nuno adapted this to a more defensive 3-5-2.

This team amazingly finished 7th and secured a place in the Europa League this season

This was a stroke of genius that is not usually associated bears like Nuno, as he realised that, against better teams, Wolves would not have so much possession, and therefore he relied more on his teams’ structure and press. This press relied on Jimenez to be the first line of defence, working in tandem with Diogo Jota, who provided the flair. The tactic worked perfectly against the top six teams, even with relatively few transfers, and this team amazingly finished 7th and secured a place in the Europa League this season. The fact that Ryan Bennett and Conor Coady players who from appearance look more suited to Barnsley and Barnet, will be playing in Europe next season, never fails to amaze me.

It is fair to say that, with the pressures of the Europa League, and the need for increased squad depth, this season has not got off to quite as good a start, and this season may not be quite as good as last, but surely this is only a short blip in the progression of this lone wolf to its ultimate prey: Champions League football.