Matt Maher: Wolves left hoping history repeats after coming full circle

There really is no time to waste. Just three training sessions and a handful more conversations with his new players is all Pereira will have before tomorrow’s crucial match at Leicester City.

All will not be lost should Wolves lose at the King Power Stadium yet, suffice to say, defeat would move the challenge of keeping the club in the Premier League at least a couple of notches higher on the difficulty meter.

“We want to thank Victor for taking on this responsibility,” said chairman Jeff Shi in the press release officially announcing Pereira’s appointment. It is some responsibility, the like of which other, perhaps initially more preferred candidates than the Portuguese, considered too great a risk.

Wolves are essentially asking Pereira to repeat the feat of Julen Lopetegui two years ago by pulling them out of the mire, yet the comparison is not perfect.For one thing, Lopetegui inherited a team which was a point better off, with one more match to play and one point nearer the safety line than Wolves are now.

Most importantly, the Spaniard also had the benefit of time.

Very rare are the occasions you get to press pause on a season. The onset of the pandemic in 2020, which allowed Dean Smith time to reorganise a Villa team hurtling toward relegation when the campaign was halted is one such example. The 2022 World Cup, which effectively gave Lopetegui a fresh pre-season after taking over at Wolves, is another.

Rather than the days Pereira has to prepare for Leicester, Lopetegui had weeks to plan for a Boxing Day trip to Everton which in the context of that season felt similarly important to tomorrow. There was even the benefit of a Carabao Cup tie against Gillingham to put any lessons from the training pitch into practice.

The 2-1 win at Goodison Park, courtesy of Rayan Ait-Nouri’s late winner, gave Lopetegui’s reign instant momentum and he would go on to win four of his first six league matches in charge, results which moved the team out of the bottom three.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. Wolves were still in a precarious position at the start of April before four straight home wins, concluding with a 1-0 triumph over Villa early the next month, saw them safe with three matches to spare. The manner of Lopetegui’s subsequent exit may have clouded memories but the turnaround he achieved was impressive. For much of his time in charge, Wolves played like a top half team. That is the kind of form Pereira now needs to find if lightning is to strike twice.

Just as then, the January transfer window will be important. There is no question the additions of Craig Dawson and Mario Lemina in particular played a key role in Wolves’ resurgence.

Yet it is also true Lopetegui was able to get a tune out of those players already at the club. The big win at Everton and an almost equally important home victory over West Ham in early January were masterminded before the majority of the signings had been made. Lemina came off the bench as a late substitute in the latter game.

On the other hand, you might look at the squad already in place upon Lopetegui’s arrival, containing the likes of Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Pedro Neto and Adama Traore and ponder just how Wolves had been struggling so badly in the first place. 

The group Pereira is taking over appears, at least on paper, nowhere near so strong which feeds into the larger question of how, in the space of two years, Wolves appear to have come full circle, back in a position where they need to be rescued but with the circumstances far tougher than before.

It certainly does not reflect well on the planning of those at the top. The drive to be self-sustainable becomes a whole lot harder when you keep finding yourself in crisis. Those tighter purse strings which so frustrated Lopetegui and led to his exit were a consequence, in part, of the spending required the previous January. Now Wolves find themselves in the same position and for all that Fosun have looked to rein in the spending, they cannot afford a relegation which would see their asset plummet in value overnight. There is a lot of good work since 2016 at real risk of being wasted.

At least the past week has finally seen some decisive action. The final fortnight of Gary O’Neil’s reign was a painful watch, with pretty much everyone bar the decision-makers at Molineux aware a change was needed as soon as the final whistle sounded at Everton. Keeping O’Neil in charge for those two further matches may come to look very costly a few months from now.

Pereira’s first task is to make sure the hole in which Wolves find themselves does not get deeper. A draw at Leicester would be no disaster, yet a win would give his reign immediate impetus, just as it did for Lopetegui at Everton two years ago.

After two decades in management across seven countries and two continents, the 56-year-old has accepted his greatest challenge in joining Wolves. Keeping them up would rank as probably his greatest achievement.