A side that once looked resilient has collapsed into historic futility, with Wolves now facing the grim task of avoiding the worst season English league football has ever seen
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aturday’s defeat at home to Brentford means Wolves have taken just two points for 17 games. No side in the entire history of English league football, in any division, has ever made a worse start than that. To reach 11 points, the record low for a Premier League season set by Derby County in 2007-08, would require a significant improvement.
How can this have happened? Wolves finished 16th last season, recovering after a dismal start. When Vitor Pereira took over on 19 December last year, they were second bottom on nine points from 16 games. They picked up 23 points from the final 22 games of the season and effectively ended any prospect of relegation with a run of six successive victories in the spring. How can a team go from averaging near enough a point a game to a tenth of that? The drop-off is extraordinary.
There were departures in the summer, with Matheus Cunha joining Manchester United, Rayan Aït-Nouri going to Manchester City, Fábio Silva sold to Borussia Dortmund, Gonçalo Guedes gone to Real Sociedad and Pablo Sarabia and Nelson Semedo – 115 league starts between them last season – leaving on frees. But that in itself shouldn’t have been enough to send Wolves into freefall.
