Liam Keen
Published8th Apr 2026, 08:00 BST
Analysing where Wolves have gone wrong this season ultimately boils down to one main reason - recruitment.
Former chairman Jeff Shi lost control of Wolves after steering the club towards relegation and that was born from a summer transfer window that weakened the side dramatically.
Several important players were sold and although more than £100million was reinvested, it was spent badly on six players who had never experienced the Premier League before, with most of them proving to be below the required standard.
Although performances and results have improved lately, Wolves are extremely likely to drop down to the Championship, with just seven matches remaining.
Wolves are paying the price for that recruitment and the litany of mistakes along the way.
"Last summer turned out to be an absolute disaster and that's where it all started going wrong,” former Wolves forward Don Goodman told the Express & Star.
"Logic and common sense will tell you, if you take a team that finishes 16th in the Premier League and you take away four or five of the best players, who have hundreds of Premier League appearances between them, and you replace them with players that have plied their trade in lesser leagues in Europe, with zero Premier League experience, and you put them in a team that's been stripped. What on earth do you think is going to happen?
"It was always going to happen once that transfer window slammed shut and that left Vitor Pereira and Wolverhampton Wanderers with the playing squad and the lack of experience that was left.
"I don't know how hands-on in terms of the recruitment Vitor Pereira was, but it's clear that the recruitment at the football club completely malfunctioned and ultimately it's cost them their place in the Premier League.
"Look at the quality of the players that went, Cunha, Ait-Nouri, Semedo, and then people forget about Sarabia and even Guedes, who scored some goals and had some influence last season in the Premier League.
"It was never going to end in a nice way and once they get off to the kind of start to the season that they did, good grief, you just can't get over that. Not winning until January, you can't recover from that.”
Don Goodman of Wolves beats Leeds goalkeeper Nigel Martyn to score the only goal as Wolves beat Leeds in the FA Cup Quarter Finalplaceholder image
Don Goodman of Wolves beats Leeds goalkeeper Nigel Martyn to score the only goal as Wolves beat Leeds in the FA Cup Quarter Final
Rob Edwards missed out on any new manager bounce when he took over from Pereira, but he has since been able to restore some pride in the club with revamped displays.
Goodman acknowledges it as an evident ‘commitment, effort and desire’ from the players that the fans can see, appreciate and get behind.
But barring a miracle great escape, Wolves will play in the second tier next season.
Goodman, in his work with Sky Sports, is better placed than most to analyse what division Wolves will find when they do drop to the Championship.
But it is the erratic nature of the league that made it tough for Goodman to answer and what will ultimately prove to be a challenge for Edwards and Wolves as they seek to bounce back at the first attempt.
"That's a very difficult question because when you look at Hull being in the top six, Millwall and Wrexham on the periphery, it's the most unpredictable league,” Goodman added.
"Ipswich and Southampton are just bubbling nicely at the right time of the season, but really with the squads that they've got, they should have been out of sight in the top two, along with Coventry and maybe Middlesbrough.
"Leicester are struggling and when you look at them player for player, it's a shock.
"It's a brutal league and it's not always easy just because you get relegated out of the Premier League. Generally, when you get relegated, you're coming down with a club that's got a losing culture, you're coming down with a group of players that think they're too good to be playing in the Championship and don't want to be there.
"There's all these negative elements that you're coming down with, so it very much depends on the recruitment.
"It depends on which players they can keep, it depends on which players they can attract.
"I would love to imagine, given that it's been evident that they're going to be in the Championship for quite some time, that wheels have been set in motion about which players they want to bring to the club, which players they'll be able to get some money for and which players they'll want to keep under all circumstances.
"I'd like to think that Rob and the recruitment team are well down that road of identifying all of that and what it would take, because Rob's got Championship experience, he knows what it takes.”
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