Wolves Fans' Verdict: The 2017/18 season

Rob Cartwright

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

I was optimistic enough to back Wolves for promotion following the last pre season Friendly win against a strong Leicester City. We were still considered as outsiders, at that point. However, with a new manager and a number of new signings fans views varied widely. I think it was a matter of hope more than expectation.

What transpired was to become an exhilarating season, full of drama and the best ‘pure’ football that I have been privileged to witness unfold. Yes, I’ve seen us win leagues, win cups, even appear in a European Cup Final; but on pure footballing terms and skill - this was the best of my lifetime.

There were so many highlights. Almost every game there would be a sequence of passing or a goal that simply took your breath away. Some of our play was 'unbelievable'.

Three significant games convinced me that we would win the league, all before the turn of the New Year.

1) October 14, Aston Villa (H) – A local derby and in front of live TV cameras, we simply blew Villa apart. The score flattered them for long periods of the game, we outplayed the early season favourites.

2) October 24, Man City (A) – Significant that our second string matched the Premier League champions elect for 120 minutes. This showed us that Nuno had got his message and tactics through to the entire squad. Many had predicted a cricket score for City. As it was, we became the first team not to concede to them and they needed penalties to go through.

3) December 30, Bristol City (A) – This was the day I knew we would win the league. We triumphed in the face of adversity. A sending off and a goal down did not distract the team that night and their belief transferred to the fans. I felt very confident that we would get a result, though the winner came right at the end amid celebrations that will stay with me for a long time.

Chris Hughes

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

What more can be said about this season that you won’t have heard before either from one of us in the verdict, someone on Twitter, the fans around you in the ground, or your mates in the pub?

It was, by a fair margin, the best season we’ve had in the two and a half decades I’ve been a season ticket holder. The Premier League seasons that I’ve seen during my time supporting Wolves had their moments of excitement and drama but, for the sheer entertaining, nay majestic, football over the course of August-May, this season trumps the rest.

Back in August I mentioned to a friend of mine that we’d win this league comfortably this season and that the question was whether we’d break the points record or not. It’s amazing to think back over the campaign with a sense of disappointment that we didn’t.

That’s how much better than our opponents we have been for the majority of the season. Since we took over top spot after the win against Norwich we haven’t looked back. The odd off-day aside we’ve waltzed to the title as though it was a procession.

What of the highlights? The obvious ones are there. Neves’ wonder strike against Derby (or any of the other five peaches he despatched), Nuno’s ecstatic celebrations after the double-penalty drama at Cardiff, holding out for a win at the Riverside with nine men and Bennett’s injury-time winner at Bristol City (when those that hadn’t already boarded the champions bus finally realised it was time to get on board!) were all great moments.

But highlight of the season was beating Villa in October. It wasn’t just the on-field statement made by beating them that night, it was hearing Molineux roar. Pure, animalistic, tribal emotions, from all sides of the ground, backing the team to give a collective middle finger to Doctor X and his potato-headed manager who’d said we wouldn’t be able to cope in the Winter. That night we showed them we could.

The biggest highlight of the season for me personally came before we’d kicked a ball in the campaign. Having spoken to Steve Plant I ended up being on his team of volunteers to do the 24-hour penalty marathon for Cure Leukaemia.

For anyone on ‘the outside’ who claims our club is losing its soul now that we’re owned by Fosun I’ll happily tell them where to shove it after having experienced first hand the collective unity over those two days of thousands of our fans coming along to show their backing for a cause so close to our hearts after hearing Carl’s news.

For me that set the tone for the whole campaign as both club and fans grew more united, particularly against slurs being thrown at us from elsewhere and forged the belief that we were going to do this for Carl.

Russ Evers (Hatherton Wolves)

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

A truly memorable season that started with a fantastic trip to Austria where we saw the seeds being sown.

Big Willy Boly was an obvious standout player but there was something different about the whole team and set up...things were stirring!

The season started with some promising performances and just got better including holding record breaking Man City to a goalless draw with our reserves at the Etihad.

Sure there were a couple of blips but the team and players seemed to learn quickly from the setbacks and simply got better, none more so than Conor Coady, Diogo Jota and the mercurial wonderkid from Porto.

In truth, it ended as a procession as we simply blew teams away, sometimes seemingly whilst not getting out of second gear.

Adam Virgo

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

The best season I’ve ever experienced. It will be remembered for so many reasons and everything about this season was special.

From the moment we got informed that Carl Ikeme had been diagnosed with leukaemia and everyone doing their bit to raise money – which brought every single person involved with Wolves together as one pack – all the way to the open top bus/West Park/starworks celebrations.

The way this season has gone, it’ll be very hard to top it, especially with how many key moments there has been.

It’s the best Wolves side I’ve ever seen and I’m sure that will keep changing for the next few seasons if things pan out how we all want them to.

There are many highlights to choose from such as Neves’ ridiculous goal against Derby, Villa at home as it was one of our best performances at Molineux and Cardiff, Boro and Bristol City away because of how we won those games and the impact they had on our season.

Out of those, it has to be Cardiff away because of what was at stake regarding the league title.

For Neves to score the free kick and then the penalty drama at the end was just incredible, I was lost for words at what I had seen and never in my time of watching football have I ever experienced anything like that.

Clive Smith

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

Aside from the detail, the season will be remembered for the patient, passing style of football with the 3-4-3 formation making the most of the diagonal passes to our willing wing backs.

Wolves' programme for the final home game managed to list 25 highlights from the season so we are really spoilt for choice.

Home fans may have been short changed because, besides the Villa game, most of the drama took place on our travels.

Five away games will linger long in the memory. Our bouncebackability at Leeds following our three game blip being one of those and it is always nice to beat them.

The classic last minute away goal to complete our comeback at Bristol with our banished fan/boss in the exec box copying the 3,000 plus fans behind the goal and going ballistic.

The 20 minute Alamo at Middlesbrough, where we never ever win (but this time we did!) with just nine men against 12 before a fan/player/coaches love-in after the final whistle.

Bolton took us to a place you rarely get – totally in charge, coasting to the title, and managing to arrange for our non-scoring skipper to eventually get on the score sheet. Season management at its best!

Cardiff however was the outstanding highlight. A top of the table clash, playing style clash, Manager clash, a superb goal and the unbelievable, never to be repeated, hectic final five minutes where you could not have scripted it. How the hell did that happen?

Heather Large

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

Back in August, we really had no idea how the season was going to pan out for us. I don't think I'm the only one who wasn't feeling that optimistic having been left disheartened by the previous 12 months.

But we really couldn't have wished for anything better and I still need to pinch myself now to believe it has really happened despite us remaining at the top of league for so long.

From the outpouring of love for Carl Ikeme and strong start to the campaign on the the opening day against Middlesbrough to lifting the Championship trophy, Molineux has been the scene for many memorable moments and some truly stunning goals.

It's been a season of highlights - and very few low points - so picking one is hard.

Nothing beats getting promoted as champions but our performance against the Man City at Etihad gave us a night I'll never forget.

The final result really didn't matter because we couldn't have been more proud of our lads. Nobody expected a clean sheet, it just seemed so unlikely, but there Wolves were competing with the best of the Premier League.

Natalie Wood

What are your reflections on the season – and what was the highlight?

Quite simply a dream!

The past 10 years as a Wolves fan have been testing to say the least. Relegations and groups of players that couldn’t give two hoots about the club they were playing for led to us floating in football wilderness.

After the end of the 2016/17 season (which will now be called Fosun's warm up year) I don’t mind saying I didn’t hold much hope for this season.

In fact when we did our annual pre-season guesses for our final league position I predicted eighth...which was me feeling optimistic!

The incomings of the likes of Willy Boly, Diogo Jota and a certain Mr Neves obviously brought a lot of hype and excitement but ultimately they were unproven in the Championship – and surely a bunch of Portugese lads couldn’t hack a British winter...

Pretty early on in the season however it was obvious I was wrong – wins against Derby and Middlesbrough were signs of something really special happening.

Up until Christmas we played some of the best football I have ever seen at the Molineux and I would argue best football I’ve ever seen in the Championship.

Gone were the days of sideways and backward passing. Instead we had style, speed and most importantly some deadly finishing in the final third. Star player for me at that time was Leo Bonatini, he was just unstoppable.

After Christmas we really just took control of the league. I spent most of the time waiting for us to slip up because it always felt too good to be true but really you look back and Wolves becoming champions wasn't really ever in doubt.

Obviously the players brought in made a huge difference but the biggest impact was from Nuno himself. Nuno is without doubt one of the best managers we have ever had at Wolves and he is by far the best manager I’ve ever seen during my 20+ years supporting the club.

After years of negative defensive football, Nuno’s attacking style really brought life back to the team and made it exciting to watch Wolves again.

Our formation allows us to keep possession and take control of the game while playing beautiful flowing football. Aside from being a tactical genius he also seemed to make a huge difference to the squad's relationships.

It has been a long time since I’ve seen such a close knit team, I really think this had a huge impact on our success.

I have to say as well as huge changes on the pitch, I felt like Wolves took a huge step forward off the field. Everything about the club just felt slicker from the videos created to the fireworks on match day.

It was clear a big investment had been happening off the field and it really paid off, I’ve never known such engagement from the fans so full credit to the team behind the scenes that made it all happen.

Picking one highlight of the season is near impossible there have been so many special moments and all just as important as the next.

Beating Aston Villa in October was probably our first big moment of the year, not just because of the result but the way we performed. We absolutely ran them off the pitch.

Up until then I think Wolves fans knew we were onto something special but it was the first time the rest of the league really sat up and took notice.

Bristol City away will probably go down as one of my best away days ever. The game itself had everything; red cards, controversy, a manager sent to the stand and of course a last minute winner from an unlikely hero.

Before the game I think we all would have taken a point so as injury time started the away end were quite happy for the final whistle to go but Wolves never gave up that night, playing 100 per cent right up till the very last minute and we got our reward.

The noise in the away end as Bennett headed the ball into the back of the net was like something I had never experienced before...I didn’t think that away day could be topped!

Middlesborough away was another big highlight. It is arguably one of the toughest away games of the league and has always been a banana skin for Wolves. Again that night just showed the players' commitment and drive to get three points. Can you just imagine if someone had told you last summer we would go down to nine men and still win?

Final big highlight for me (and I’m sure I won’t be alone in this one!) was Cardiff away...there is just nothing better than getting one over Neil Warnock!

That game will be one that we still speak about in years to come. We really proved why we were champions elect. Every player worked their socks off and stuck to our game plan.

The last five minutes were some of the memorable moments in an away end I’ve ever experienced but it really wouldn’t be good for my health for it to be repeated ever again!

Tomorrow – our fans reveal their hopes and expectations for next season