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Review of the year: The best - and worst - of Wolves in 2016

It's been another rollercoaster year at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Published

Fosun bought the club from Steve Morgan for £30million and offered hope of a bright future.

Jez Moxey left, Kenny Jackett was sacked. So was Walter Zenga. And Paul Lambert arrived intent on going right where Zenga went wrong.

On the pitch it was a tale of mid-table obscurity and occasional flirtations with the bottom three.

There have been plenty of highs and lows along the way. Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers takes a look back at a year where so much changed at Molineux.

Best performance

Wolves have won 13 of 45 matches this calendar year – a total of 55 points, enough to plant any Championship team in the 'lower mid-table' bracket.

Wonderful victories, the memories from which will last a lifetime, have been, well, non-existent.

There have been some highlights amid the gloom, though.

On the very first day of 2016 Wolves produced an away performance as 'smash and grab' as you're likely to see, winning 1-0 at promotion-chasing Brighton despite coming under a barrage of attacks.

A 2-1 win at MK Dons in April, when Jack Price scored a very popular winning goal, also sticks in the memory, as does the 3-1 derby victory at Blues in August. Boxing Day's dramatic late drama against Bristol City is a late contender, while the astonishing 4-4 draw against Fulham a couple of weeks ago would take home the 'best temporary comeback' award.

The title of this section, though, is 'best performance' and for that there is a clear winner.

Wolves went to the home of a team regarded as one of the best ever seen at this level (certainly the most expensively assembled) and did a job on them, beating Newcastle 2-0 with what was a magnificent all-round performance from start to finish.

Walter Zenga's team, who just four days earlier had been humiliated 4-0 by Barnsley, outplayed Rafa Benitez's side and could even have won the game more comfortably.

In light of recent events the return fixture should be pretty tasty as well.

Worst performance

A few more candidates for this one, unfortunately.

Preston at home (1-2, February) was alarmingly bad, Leeds away (1-2, April) was vapid and uninspiring, Barnsley at home (0-4, September) was disastrous, Wigan away (1-2, September) was utterly depressing and Cardiff away (1-2, December) was pure ineptness.

Only the one thrashing in that list, but all were defeats to scar the soul.

There would have been a thrashing at home to Derby last month. Indeed, the first half against the Rams was as bad as Wolves have been for years, with defending that would have embarrassed Sunday League players.

But the 90-minute performance that put all of the above to shame was the 3-0 capitulation at Brentford in February.

With Wolves then winless in six the pressure was ramping up on Kenny Jackett. His team folded at Griffin Park and were second best in every area of the pitch.

Rajiv van la Parra, who days earlier had basically told fans he didn't care what they thought of him as he was still earning loadsa money, was booed by his own supporters. And Jackett walked the gauntlet in front of the away fans at full time.

He was a dead man walking, it seemed, although a run of one defeat in eight followed and Jackett saved his job until the summer.

Best moment

On the pitch, nothing could rival the sheer euphoria that greeted David Edwards' 90th minute goal against Fulham this month.

Half an hour earlier Wolves had been 3-1 down. They were now 4-3 up and Molineux went absolutely potty (it didn't last, obviously). One of those moments that we all fell in love with the game for.

Off the pitch there was also euphoria, albeit on a smaller scale, when Jeff Shi was unveiled to a gathering of 100 or so supporters at Molineux after his takeover press conference.

They were wonderful scenes. You got a tangible sense that the club was about to lift off. Twelve signings in the following six weeks backed that up and although things have stalled since then there is a belief that Fosun will lead Wolves to the promised land. It just might take a bit longer than they planned.

Worst moment

The last-gasp winner for Hull in April was a sickener, although mattered little in the scheme of things.

Fulham's equaliser in the 4-4 was another gut-wrencher, although perhaps a farcical game of Wacky Races-style football couldn't have ended any other way.

Wolves' lowest moment probably came during the 3-2 defeat to Derby in November. How they were only 2-0 down at half time is anyone's guess.

But as their players' confidence turned to mush, the crowd turned on one of their own. The booing of Danny Batth was a very low moment all round. The managerless club was in turmoil on and off the pitch.

Player of the year

For consistency Matt Doherty wins this one. The Irishman is the only man to have played in every single league game for Wolves in 2016.

His stellar performances in the second half of last season deservedly won him the player of the year gong. His form tailed off at the start of the current campaign but he's looking back to his old self, with those forays down the left flank now a trademark.

He's also chipped in with five goals, all of them memorable (a 35-yard stunner versus Fulham, a last-minute winner versus Bristol City, a lovely finish versus Reading, a comeback goal in the 4-4 Fulham madness and a 25-yard ping versus Cardiff).

For achievements, David Edwards is up there for reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals with Wales and then making himself undroppable in recent months with six goals and real leadership in midfield, not to mention earning a potential three-and-a-half year deal aged 30.

Helder Costa, he of seven goals and five assists, is turning himself into one of Wolves' most successful loan players of recent years.

Goal of the year

Doherty's improbable long-ranger against Fulham at the start of the year was magnificent, as were finishes from Ivan Cavaleiro and Edwards against the same opposition this month.

Joe Mason scored a couple of curling beauties, at Forest in April and Blues in August.

Costa's breathtaking volley against Bristol City on Boxing Day takes some beating.

And Price's unlikely winner at MK Dons last season, while certainly not the most impressive goal, was one of the most popular.

But a technically brilliant strike from Joao Teixeira against Brentford in September is one that sticks out.

Costa won the ball deep in his own half, sprinted faster than Speedy Gonzales all the way towards the Brentford box, leaving two players in his wake. He played to Teixeira whose shimmy brought it onto his left foot before he coolly beat the keeper. The epitome of the 'new' Wolves.

Top goalscorer(s)

Until recently the goal machine that is George Saville was Wolves' top scorer of the year, with just six.

Costa and Edwards have now overtaken him, on seven. Where would Wolves be without them?

Most patient

Anyone who sat through each and every minute of the laborious, gruelling, relentlessly monotonous and tedious four successive 0-0 draws at Molineux towards the end of last season deserves a medal.

Wolves broke a club 'record' in the process. They produced eight 0-0s in total in 2015/16, seven of them at Molineux.

In those four consecutive home bore draws - against Blues, Ipswich, Blackburn and Rotherham - they produced a total of 12 shots on target, half of them in the Rotherham game alone, a relative thriller in comparison to the Blackburn stalemate which Blackburn's manager (some bloke called Paul Lambert) dubbed one of the worst games he'd ever seen.

Crowds dropped to 18,000 and the club was going absolutely nowhere. It summed up the final season of Steve Morgan's reign.

Most profligate

Take your pick from Bjorn Sigurdarson (15 games, no goals), Adam Le Fondre (10 games, no goals....his only goal of the entire year came against Wolves, for Wigan – oh the irony), Jon Dadi Bodvarsson (a current run of 19 games without a goal) and Nouha Dicko (a current run of 11 games without a goal). Plus, one to watch – Joe Mason, nine games and counting.

Goals scored by Wolves strikers in 2016? Eight.

Granite award

Steve Morgan, Jez Moxey, Kenny Jackett, Walter Zenga and Andrea Butti all went (or came and went) this year. Long-serving club secretary Richard Skirrow will sign off his final papers in the coming weeks after 20 years' service.

Even marketing and communications chief Matt Grayson departed.

But impressively surviving the regime change and spanning two eras was Kevin Thelwell, who also earned a promotion to sporting director.

The mistakes of last summer can't be attributed to Thelwell. January offers him a chance to salvage his reputation with supporters.

Most underrated competition

A dramatic 3-2 win with a last-gasp save as good as any you'll see this season? A 4-0 demolishing of a League Two play-off chasing team? A comeback penalty shoot-out victory?

Understandably derided by many, but loved by Wolves - the Checkatrade Trophy. The kids are alright.

Biggest irony

April 13 - Fans rage against their club after Wolves announce controversial payday lenders The Money Shop as their chief sponsor, leading to a petition signed by thousands and a promise to boycott the next season's shirt.

April 30 - Fans are forced to sit in The Money Shop Bridgford stand away at Nottingham Forest.

Biggest u-turn

Richard Stearman's form has been a positive point for Wolves.

Summer transfer deadline day 2015 - Richard Stearman leaves for footballing reasons.

Summer transfer deadline day 2016 - Richard Stearman joins for footballing reasons.

Best dressed/Smoothest operator

It's about time someone brought some suave sophistication and glamour to Wolves.

Those who reside in and frequent WV1 aren't exactly famed for their fashion sense (speaking from personal experience).

But Andrea Butti, with his personalised suits and smooth talking, certainly managed it.

You probably wouldn't trust the man who never left Walter Zenga's side (at Zenga's request) to take your sister out on a date, but he was engaging company and came armed with great tales from his days at Monaco and Inter.

Both he and Zenga embraced Wolverhampton and Wolves as best they could but, for better or worse, their ideas and methods were just too unorthodox for the rest of the club to gel with.

But they both certainly left their mark in the three months they were here. And no fourth official will ever forget them.

Life-saver award

An angry Walter Zenga is not to be trifled with.

Burton keeper Jon McLaughlin fancied taking him on (albeit from 40 yards away) as the pair became embroiled in a shushing contest during the end of the 1-1 draw in September.

McLaughlin was annoyed at Conor Coady for diving. Zenga disagreed with the decision. Burton then equalised in the 94th minute and the argument continued after the full time whistle.

So enraged was Zenga, for whom the phrase 'stereotypical fiery Italian' could have been invented, that he had to be held back by broad-shouldered security bod Tony Wilson, who saved Zenga from himself. And probably saved McLaughlin from a bit of a kicking. Good work Tony.

Most diligent checker of bank balance after pay day

Rajiv van la Parra.

Dignified exit

After three years (two successful, one underwhelming - albeit hampered by a low budget and endless injuries) Kenny Jackett was unceremoniously given the boot.

He took it, as you'd expect from such a consummate professional, with graceful dignity.

The word dignity couldn't be associated with the manner in which his sacking was made public, at 11.30pm on a Friday night just days after Jeff Shi said Jackett was staying.

Ten hours later Zenga was announced as his replacement. Oh, Wolves.

Fad that's actually pretty good

The Bodvarsson clap. Come on, admit it, it's actually pretty good isn't it? Just don't tell anyone that the Wolves Twitter team thought it was pretty corny when Crewe's fans did it during a July pre-season friendly...

Ones to watch in 2017

1) Connor Ronan - could be the skilful, intelligent ball-playing midfielder of Wolves' dreams.

2) Morgan Gibbs-White - a 16-year-old attacking midfielder/forward who's as highly rated as anyone to come through the academy in the past 10 years.

3) Niall Ennis - injuries have denied him a first-team debut but for the prolific striker it's surely just a matter of time before his big breakthrough.

Predictions for 2017

1) Wolves will finish in the top 10 of the Championship this season.

2) Lambert will remain in post for the entire year.

3) New fall-guy Thelwell will be blamed for absolutely everything that goes wrong.

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