Martin Swain on Dean Saunders' Wolves axe

It's also the first decision all but a few Wolves fans will instinctively feel the owner Steve Morgan has got right in more than a year.

Saunders is many things but he is not – as yet anyway – a manager for Wolves. I'm afraid he lacked the substance and gravitas required of the man occupying such a vital command point in any football club.

Wolves failed to improve under his leadership and if anything displayed even less capability.

The football was haphazard and regressive while even more damningly, the Wolves of Saunders failed to register the fiery determination which was the hallmark of their manager.

He came to the club promising to simplify the message to players who were supposedly befuddled by the demands of his predecessor Stale Solbakken but, if anything, the team looked more confused than ever.

But then the Saunders appointment felt wholly risky from the outset and nothing that happened in the 20 games which followed did anything to disprove that.

There was little the 48-year-old former forward had achieved in his managerial career which made him a candidate sufficiently experienced to take on the enormous task.

Indeed, Morgan's decision to turn to Saunders merely endorsed the suspicion that Wolves were making one faulty turn after another and becoming even more lost.

Sure enough, sadly enough, the result was a debacle duly delivered on Saturday when they were relegated.

But, as cruel as it may be to say this of an undoubted football enthusiast, removing Saunders from the equation now feels like the start of a healing process.

Wolves have a huge task ahead to put themselves back together not only for the short-term target of assembling a new team strong enough for a League One promotion challenge.

But it's about the longer term as well – rebuilding a lost accord with its public and, ultimately, returning to the Premier League.

Had that task been entrusted to Saunders, a man already deeply compromised by the headlong slide towards the third tier, it would have been accompanied by major mistrust.

So, the future can begin now. Of course, Morgan faces the now equally important follow-up, who should be next?

This is something he has got badly wrong ever since the sacking of Mick McCarthy.

But, at least now, he has a little time to draw breath and not leap immediately into a judgement of blind faith. He has the chance to regain his grip and authority now.

It's a decision that will convince his own public that he has learned his lessons and does indeed possess foresight and leadership of a man in charge of such a treasured and important institution.

That means returning to the methods that were in place pre-McCarthy's sacking. He must close his ears to whatever voices have been leading him in damaging directions.

It is interesting and significant that the club's official statement namechecks Kevin Thelwell, the new head of Wolves' sporting operations, as the man who will now lead the hunt for Saunders's replacement.

This is a big moment for him in his efforts to become for Wolves what Dan Ashworth eventually became for Albion.

It will not have been easy for the owner to effectively own up to the world that he got it dreadfully wrong with Saunders.

Morgan has, however, created an opportunity for himself and his club. Every Wolves fan hopes it can be taken wisely.