Team News…
Young midfielder George Earthy returned to training last week, but wasn't involved in Friday night's clash against Chelsea. Brazilian teenager Luis Guilherme was also missing from that game, having picked up an injury in training earlier this month, while Crysencio Summerville remains on the sidelines.
For Wolves, Leon Chiwome and Ki-Jana Hoever are out through injury, and Toti Gomes is suspended after being sent-off against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday.
Opposition…
It is now nine years since Wolverhampton Wanderers were bought by Chinese investment group Fosun.
After being relegated from the Premier League in 2012, and dropped into League One the following year, Wolves returned to the second tier in 2014.
They missed out on the Play-Offs by a single place in 2014/15, then finished the 2015/16 season in 14th place in the Championship, with supporters increasingly unhappy at the direction the club appeared to be travelling in.
Fosun’s arrival did not initially lead to an improvement in on-field results, with Wolves employing three managers in their first season in charge - Kenny Jackett, Italian Walter Zenga and Scot Paul Lambert - on their way to a 15th-place Championship finish.
However, the appointment of Portuguese Nuno Espírito Santo in May 2017, combined with Fosun’s close relationship with Nuno’s compatriot, agent Jorge Mendes, saw Wolves’ fortunes rapidly improve thereafter.
Mendes used his influence and contacts to bring in a succession of Portuguese players to Molineux - Ivan Cavaleiro and Hélder Costa had arrived in July 2016, followed by Rúben Neves, Rúben Vinagre and Diogo Jota the following summer.
All five played starring roles as Wolves won the Championship title in 2017/18, before their fellow countrymen Rui Patrício and João Moutinho, Mexico striker Raúl Jiménez and Spanish pair Adama Traoré and Jonny were signed to help the club finish seventh in the Premier League the following season.
The 2019/20 season brought a second successive seventh-place finish and a run to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals under the unflappable Nuno.
That level of achievement was always likely to be difficult to maintain, especially after Nuno’s departure to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2021, and Wolves have settled for mid-table and bottom-half finishes in the last five seasons under four different managers.
Yet another Portuguese, Bruno Lage, took Wolves to tenth in 2021/22. Spaniard Julen Lopetegui replaced him in November 2022 and led the Old Gold to safety, before departing in August 2023.
Former West Ham United midfielder Gary O’Neil then guided Wolves to 14th and the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2023/24, but the West Midlands side struggled for consistency throughout the early part of 2024/25, and the 2-1 home defeat to Ipswich Town in December signalled the end of O’Neil’s reign.
The Old Gold moved quickly to bring in Vítor Pereira, who inherited a team 19th in the table with just two league wins all season and seemingly in dire peril of being relegated.
However, Pereira, who has won league titles with Porto, Olympiacos and Shanghai SIPG, inspired a turnaround as Wolves won six Premier League games in a row between mid-March and late-April - including a home win over West Ham United - to climb safely clear of the bottom three and ultimately finish 16th.