How Wolves plunged to the lower leagues and nearly ceased to exist - Part 20: Wolves facing financial oblivion – and a move to non-league
In more detail than ever before, the Express & Star tells the full Bhatti brothers story - a troubled era which saw Wolves plunge to depths of the lower leagues and face financial oblivion. In Part 20, Wolves are on the brink of going non-league.
"Wolves may quit League" - even by the standards of the Bhattis' tumultuous four-year reign, the Express & Star's stark headline on June 10, 1986, came as a brutal blow.
Six years after manager John Barnwell had optimistically spoken about Wolves dominating European football, talks were now taking place about a possible swap in the football pyramid with non-league Enfield.
"If Wolves can turn out 12 players on August 16, we'll take them," said Peter Hunter, secretary of the GM Vauxhall Conference league.
Vice-chairman Doug Hope said he was lost for words.
"It would be like switching off a life-support machine for Wolves," he said.
'Out of Darkness Cometh Light' was the motto of the borough of Wolverhampton. That Wolves had plunged into darkness was in no doubt. The question on everybody's lips was: Where will the light come from?
Rudderless, with no chairman or chief executive. Elusive owners whose property company was teetering on the brink of collapse. And a supporters' club which concluded that the best hope would be for Wolves' creditors to force the club into administration, it was hard to see much of a glimmer.
The supporters who had been calling for the club to be forced into administration saw their wish granted on May 28, 1986,
