Kevin Thelwell: Wolves will mix it with the big boys
Kevin Thelwell today stressed Wolves won't be bossed by their big-spending rivals next season as he pledged to improve the squad.
Despite their parachute payments halving to £8m next season, Wolves are expected to be around the top six payers in the Championship.
And although head coach Kenny Jackett won't have the spending power of relegated Premier League trio Norwich, Fulham and Cardiff, head of football operations Thelwell believes Wolves have other qualities which will bridge the gap as they bid for a second successive promotion.
"If you look at the research into the different leagues, it's generally in the Premier League that you get what you pay for in terms of the teams with the most money finishing at the top," said Thelwell.
"That's not really the case in the Championship where there's no real correlation between what you spend and when your team eventually ends up.
"A lot of it's about the environment you create – and Kenny and Joe (Gallen, assistant head coach) have already done that, having some momentum, which we've got, and making sure the additions are going to make it better.
"Hopefully by the time the season starts, we're ticking all of those boxes."
Wolves are expected to start putting those plans in place soon by adding the three or four expected signings to strengthen Jackett's record-breaking League One-winning squad.
"We'd been looking forward for a while to hopefully being in the Championship and we can now kick on.
"That means looking to deliver a squad and a programme of support stronger than this season.
"We're in a good position and looking towards now trying to take us forward again.
"We're in good shape in our planning for recruitment and we've been speaking on a weekly basis with Kenny and Joe.
"And I think everyone is really excited about the challenge."
Norwich and Southampton went from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons in recent years and Thelwell is confident Wolves could do the same.
"If you look at the last few years about how the teams going up into the Championship have fared, you can also take some trends from that," he said. "So we're all really positive."
