Matt Maher: Wolves chiefs prove it’s not always good to talk

Despite a return of just one point from the first six Premier League matches, equalling the worst start to a season since 2003, the message from inside Molineux is for everyone to stay calm and everything, eventually, is going to be alright.

“It’s important the fans understand what we’re trying to do and buy into it,” sporting director Matt Hobbs said last week told The Telegraph, during an interview which he and Jeff Shi hoped would provide supporters with insight yet if anything only served to frustrate the fanbase more.

Talk will always come a distant second to action in sport. If you want to take supporters with you, first you need some positive results and Wolves haven’t had nearly enough of those over the last six months.

There’s mitigation, of course.

It is more than fair for Gary O’Neil to reference a fixture list which has been, statistically, the toughest through the opening six games.

The Wolves boss is also on solid ground when pointing out the longer-term record of just one win in 16 matches is influenced, strongly, by the injury crisis which gripped his team in the final months of last season.

Yet supporters do not see the game through the same methodology as a manager. They live on emotion and it is just once in nearly seven months Wolves fans have experienced the winning feeling in the league. It is why tomorrow’s match at Brentford, though still very early in the season, feels such a big one.

Immediately following it is a home match against Manchester City, before a trip to Brighton, by which point the campaign will be a quarter old.