Vitor Pereira has been sacked by Wolves.
Vitor Pereira has been sacked by Wolves.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have sacked manager Vitor Pereira after Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Fulham. The Portuguese agreed a new contract with in September, but he has been sacked by the West Midlands club after failing to pick up a single Premier League win in 10 attempts.
Pereira made nine changes to his starting XI from the team that was knocked out of the Carabao Cup by on Wednesday. However, his changes were unable to inspire a victory at Craven Cottage.
Saturday's loss in west London leaves Wolves rock-bottom of the top-flight table - eight points from safety. Pereira's men played more than half the game against Fulham with 10 men after Emmanuel Agbadou's 36th-minute red card, but were already 1-0 down at the time. Harry Wilson then added to Ryan Sessegnon's early opener before a Yerson Mosquera own goal completed the rout and brought the curtain down on their manager's 11-month reign.
The former Porto boss was appointed at Molineux in December 2024 to replace Gary O'Neill and helped to steer Wolves to safety last season. However, the loss of star player Matheus Cunha after triggered his £62.5million release clause was a hammer blow.
And Wolves will now be looking for a new manager ahead of next Saturday's trip to Chelsea (8pm kick-off). Speaking after the loss to Fulham - Pereira could not hide his disappointment.
“I’m disappointed today. I’m not proud of my wok, of our work, because I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s because mentally, we put a lot of energy in the last game against Chelsea until the last minute," he said.
“But what I realised today was a very difficult game for us, tactically, technically, physically. We played maybe one of the worst games that we’ve played. Even with 11 against 11, since the first minute the energy to move, the offensive dynamic, and the energy to press was not there.
“After five minutes, I started to realise that something is missing today. But the game was balanced, because even then, they were not playing in a high level. But after the goal, we tried to do something, but not in our level. After the red card, it was very difficult for us.”
Emmanuel Agbadou was sent-off against Fulham (Image: Simon Dael/Shutterstock)
When asked about his future at Molineux, he added: “I’m trying everything. I’m trying everything to mentally keep the team in conditions to compete. I had very good feelings from the last game, especially the second half, but I don’t think two days was enough to recover for this game. But it’s my responsibility.
“I’m not a manager to put the responsibilities on the players, but together, we need to have a talk, and to assume the responsibilities together as a group because we cannot accept this level that we played today. I’m a fighter. I never give up. I’m not this kind of person. I will try my best in the next training to mentally recover the team, to tactically recover the organisation that we need for the next game.
“But today is a difficult game for this evaluation. If you look for the second 45 minutes that we play against Chelsea, I could tell you that they are together. They are fighting. They are fighting to try to turn over the situation, but I can’t today.
“We need to reflect about what happened today because it was not the team. Before this game, if you look for the Burnley game, if you look for the Sunderland game, one half of the time we played in a good level, and the other half of the time we struggled and didn’t play in our level. We cannot play one half in our level and the other half in a different level. We must be consistent.
“Today, in my mind, I thought we’ll go there – changing some players – and we can show that we can be consistent in a full game, but it was not the case. If I’m happy, I’m happy, if I’m proud, I’m proud, but I cannot represent that today. I am not proud. I am not happy, and we must play in a better level and we must give the answer in the next game.”
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