WOLVES – Back in the High Life again…………
If a week is a long time in politics, then a year in football is often an eternity. On Good Friday 2017 (April 14th), I saw the Molineux fixture between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton & Hove Albion, the visitors running out comfortable 2-0 winners who to this observer at least looked the most accomplished team the Championship had produced for sometime.
Moving on three weeks I returned to Molineux for the final home match of the 2016-2017 season, a game which brought the visit of Preston North End, the fixture settled by an early goal for Wolves, the campaign closing in bright Sunday afternoon sunshine as both clubs looked ahead to a summer spent trying to acquire players who would lift each squad from their mid-table berth to the level of Championship play-off contenders.
At the time of writing, in the wake of fixtures played on the weekend of 14/15 April, it appears Preston have made that steady progress, a 2-1 win at Queens Park Rangers last Saturday keeping them in contention for a top six finish. But last Sunday, almost twelve months to the day when they comfortably beaten by upwardly moving Brighton, Wolves were celebrating their return to the Premiership after a six year absence – a routine 2-0 home win over Birmingham City not only the icing on their promotion cake, results the previous day had gone their way to ensure a return to the top flight, but also bringing the racing certainty of being promoted as title-winners, the Championship trophy the cherry for finishing on top.
The transformation in a team who finished among the also-ran’s after a season of upheaval in 16/17 has been remarkable. At the end of last term Paul Lambert, a manager with an impressive Championship pedigree, who had been in charge at Wolves for seven months, was replaced by 44 year-old Portuguese Head Coach Nuno Espirito Santo and combined with an enviable recruitment policy and solid financial investment, he has transformed the squad from a group standing in the middle ground to one being acclaimed as the best team the Championship has yet produced.
The signing of Ruben Neves for over £15 million from Porto was an early statement of intent by the Fosun group, the Chinese owners of Wolverhampton Wanderers, while the acquisition of midfield player Diogo Jota who came on-loan from Athletico Madrid was another masterstroke, both of whom have played a major role in a season that looked destined to end in success from the earliest days of autumn. The form of central defender Willy Boly, a loan signing from Porto where he was coached by Santo, has also been a revelation and with an expansive game plan that utilises fully the attacking prowess of wing-backs Matt Doherty and Barry Douglas, Wolves have stretched opposition and constantly profited from the creation of space that has allowed Neves and Jota to flourish to such an extent that comparisons with Premiership Champions Manchester City are not as outlandish as they might seem.
In truth the victory over Gary Monk’s Birmingham was a straightforward affair and with promotion already assured there was an occasional feeling Wolves were operating at a level ten per cent below their usual level of intensity. Early in the match a Birmingham attack forced goalkeeper John Ruddy into an excellent double save to twice deny Maxime Colin, but on twenty one minutes Romain Saiss and Doherty combined neatly on the right flank, a smart low cross from Doherty providing the opportunity for Jota to score at close range. When Birmingham had Harlee Dean dismissed for hauling down Helder Costa as he bore in on goal six minutes after half-time, all hope of the visitors taking a point to aid their precarious position at the wrong end of the table vanished, Wolves content to play keep ball and see out the match in a relaxed manner before their probing eventually put substitute Benik Afobe into space and with three minutes left he advanced to beat City goalkeeper David Stockdale from ten yards.
In its current form the team Santo has assembled look better equipped than any promoted from the Championship, certainly in recent memory, to meet the challenge of the Premiership and with the likely addition of several front-line summer signings, the possibility of Wolves securing a top half finish cannot be ruled out. While not at their best last Sunday, two months ago I caught sight of how good they are in top gear, the first half against Queens Park Rangers in February the finest forty five minutes of football I have witnessed in a very long time. As the half-time whistle blew even this grizzled old veteran stood to applaud, not having clapped so enthusiastically at Molineux since John Richards fired home the League Cup semi-final second leg winner against Norwich City on January 26 1974, the day after Nuno Espirito Santo was born.
Suddenly a year, let alone forty four years, does not seem a long time in football at all.
NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of MONTY’S DOUBLE – an outstanding new thriller now available as an Amazon Kindle Book.