Premier League news: Wolves’ relegation confirmed as eight-year stay in the Premier League comes to an end
Following West Ham’s goalless draw at Selhurst Park last night, Wolverhampton Wanderers will return to the Championship after a rollercoaster stint in the top flight, writes Sports News Blitz’s Gabriel Mills.
Having won just three league matches so far, the Black Country side have endured a disastrous campaign cemented to the foot of the table for all-but one week of the season.
Relegation looked likely as early as October, by which point Wolves had already suffered defeats to all three newly-promoted sides and failed to win any of their opening 10 matches.
Vitor Pereira was subsequently sacked by the club after a 3-0 drubbing away at Fulham at the beginning of November, and Middlesbrough’s Rob Edwards was appointed to the rapidly sinking ship.
The rot didn’t stop for the Old Gold, tensions continued to rise between fans and the ownership with protests and strongly-worded banners a frequent occurrence.
Winless streak
On the pitch it was worse. Wolves lost 11 straight Premier League matches to break the longest winless streak to start a season (19).
A team with little to no confidence, an absence of a creative spark and a leaky defense that ships nearly two goals a game is why Wolves have been destined for the drop.
Seasons gone by have featured talent in the squad capable of dragging the team through with the likes of Matheus Cunha, Pedro Neto and Ruben Neves, but the current squad has no such beacon of quality.
The miniscule consolation for Wolves fans is that Derby County’s 2002/2003 all-time low points tally of 11 has been surpassed.
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The glory days
Despite struggling in recent years, there was a time following promotion in 2018, where Wolves were a side to be feared by all.
Under the management of Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves arrived to the Premier League in 2018/2019 with a hunger to compete, finishing in seventh place and bringing European football to the club for the first time in almost 40 years.
Wolves had acquired some of Portugal’s finest talents in Diogo Jota, Neves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio while also bringing a free-scoring Raul Jimenez to the West Midlands.
The following season was more of the same, a league double over Pep Guardiola’s Man City, a quarter-final exit in the Europa League and yet another seventh-placed league finish to establish themselves as a top Premier League side.
In 2020/2021, playing a season behind closed doors during a pandemic was difficult for every football club - but even more so for Wolves, who lost Jimenez to a horrific fractured-skull injury at the beginning of the campaign.
The goals were not replaced in the team and Nuno’s side slid down the table to finish 13th before the former Porto and Valencia boss parted ways with Wolves.
The beginning of the end
From 2022 onwards, Wolves chopped and changed through various managers, finding themselves in a loop of poor transfer windows, relegation scares and new manager bounces.
Wolves sat rock bottom of the Premier League table at Christmas in 2022 before splurging in the winter transfer window on Matheus Cunha, Joao Gomes and Mario Lemina.
Julen Lopetegui was appointed as manager and Wolves steered themselves away from the drop zone to finish 14th but warning signs were there.
Two years later it was the same story as Wolves sat bottom of the table after 10 matches.
The appointment of Vitor Pereira and an inspired campaign by Matheus Cunha helped dig the side out of the bottom three to safety again.
This season Wolves have had no such luck.
With no world-class talent to save them this time, and no genuine chance to fight for survival, confirmation of their relegation on Monday night was the final nail in the coffin.
A long and steady decline has inevitably resulted in relegation back to the Championship for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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