On this day: New Wolves owners axe manager
Kenny Jackett isn't the first Wolves boss to have the rug pulled out from under him soon after the club came under new ownership.
Jackett was axed as head coach last Friday night, eight days after Chinese conglomerate Fosun International bought Wolves from Steve Morgan.
By Saturday afternoon, in came Walter Zenga to replace him at the helm as Fosun picked their own man to lead the team going forward, writes Craig Birch.
It evokes memories of this date in 1982, when the late Ian Greaves was sacked. He'd only been in charge for six months, compared to Jackett's three years.
Greaves had taken over at a club in dire financial straits and in danger of going bankrupt, due to difficulties repaying loans they had taken out to redevelop Molineux.
They were in receivership and minutes away from liquidation before they were saved from ruin, by a consortium led by popular former striker Derek Dougan.
Dougan's backers were the Bhatti brothers, Mahmud and Mohammad, who turned out to be a disaster. Fast forward nearly four years later and they vanished.
The Bhatti's reign of terror would bring Wolves to their knees and take them to their lowest ebb - a season in the bottom tier of English football for the first time.
No one foresaw that on 3 August 1982 or that Greaves would get his marching orders so quickly, a little over 24 hours after the deal was complete to take over Wolves.
He'd spoken to the Express & Star the previous day about how he'd been told to 'carry on as normal' by Dougan, the fourth supremo he'd answered to during his tenure.
Come the Tuesday and Greaves had been sacked, after refusing Dougan's request to resign. A long legal battle looked to be looming large about the terms of his contract.
He should have been entitled to a £50,000 pay out, because of the 18 months left of his £33,000-a-year deal. The club were operating under a new trading name, though.
The big question was whether Wolverhampton Football Club 1982 would have to honour old contracts but, either way, Greaves was gone without saying goodbye to the players.
The squad were not even aware of the news as they trained that morning. In fact, want-away striker Andy Gray had even gone to see him about a move to Manchester United.
Gray was unwilling to stay after Wolves had been relegated to the Second Division, with Dougan and co-director Doug Hope nowhere to be seen at Molineux when he arrived.
Word got out they were heading to Shrewsbury Town, with everyone suspecting it was Town's manager Graham Turner they were after. As it turns out, that would come later.
Ironically, Turner got the call later in the year after the Bhattis were ousted and led Wolves to three promotions, just to get them back to where they were in 1982-83.
Coming back to Molineux with Dougan and Hope was actually Turner's assistant, Graham Hawkins, a Wolverhampton man born-and-bred who had played for Wolves.
It appeased the supporters, with a man from city in charge of the team for the first time since the legendary Stan Cullis. Hawkins' reign was initially a success, too.
He led Wolves back to the First Division at the first attempt, as runners-up to Queens Park Rangers. That's where the glory ended and struggle resumed in 1983-84.
Hawkins would also get his marching orders in April 1984. Tommy Docherty, Bill McGarry and Sammy Chapman would oversee three relegations before Turner got there.
