Wolves' Jez Moxey: It's been the perfect season

By Tim Nash

Now, for the first time, chief executive Jez Moxey has revealed that automatic promotion at the first attempt was always the board's brief to Kenny Jackett.

The club's senior officer still admits the club is merely "back to square one" in its quest to return to where he thinks it should be after a year out of the Championship and two years on from their Premier League exit.

But in the aftermath of clinching the League One title and almost 12 months on from the embarrassment at Brighton, a much more relaxed Moxey admits the stunning rebirth of Wolves under Jackett has even surprised him.

"I expected good things but I didn't anticipate breaking the records we've broken," said Moxey as we chatted in one of the Billy Wright Stand executive suites. As he looked on, his sandy-coloured suit reflected a wholly sunnier disposition nearly a year on from the darkest and most turbulent hours of his 14-year tenure.

"From day one we'd talked about what the objective was, which was automatic promotion at the first attempt.

"That was us making it clear to him and him saying 'we need to do this'.

"He said 'I don't want to finish in the play-offs'.

"Those were the discussions and we agreed we wouldn't talk about it publicly.

"We knew what we were trying to achieve, but did we expect this? No, at least not so emphatically.

"I don't think anyone could have expected it – five club records; consecutive wins, overall wins, away wins, clean sheets and most points.

"It's been a perfect season."

After so much anger and hatred directed towards him as Wolves' fortunes spiralled dizzily downwards, Moxey has long since switched off viewing the whirlwind of social media following the club.

But now Wolves have returned to happier times, he has at least become the public face of the club again in allowing himself to be interviewed twice in the last seven days.

In doing so, he reflects on one of his best appointments in his near decade and a half at Molineux: The recruitment of Jackett.

"I think we've got the right head coach and we're delighted with him," he said.

"The whole thing fitted – both him and us – the timing was right, our situation was right for him and he was right for us. You could sense from the moment we spoke to him, there seemed to be chemistry between us, which is so important in football.

"We wanted that feeling to permeate throughout the club. We needed Kenny's thought process and application to the job to achieve what we've started to achieve, and he's the right guy to take it forward. We're absolutely certain of that."

This is the third promotion in Moxey's time after Dave Jones and Mick McCarthy led them to the Premier League in 2003 and 2009 respectively.

But while he finds it impossible to compare the triumphs, he admits this one has been the most difficult to celebrate, given Wolves' appearance in the third tier in the first place.

That's why there will be no open-top bus parade through the city centre and celebrations will be kept to the presentation of the trophy after the final game against Carlisle a week on Saturday, followed by another appearance of the players and the silverware at Jody Craddock's testimonial two days later, to keep a sense of proportion.

"In isolation this is very satisfying, but we're not going to crow too much about it because we've struggled a bit with getting the balance right between acknowledging the players achieving something special, while at the same time not overcooking it because, with all due respect, it's League One," said Moxey.

"We think to over-celebrate this would be out of step."

But, however serene the mood is, Moxey is happy to remain the pantomime villain. Asked if he thought there was a 'One Jez Moxey' chant on the horizon, he said: "No – they've got to hate someone, so I'm happy for it to be me!"

Hated or not, he got Jackett's appointment right.