Boss Peter Adams nearly quit Wolves

The veteran manager felt his message to riders was becoming stale following back-to-back seasons of under-achievement.

But a raft of fresh faces in the 2016 side – only Swedes Freddie Lindgren and Jacob Thorssell survive from last year's line-up – means he has decided to continue in his personal quest for a 10th top-flight league title.

Adams had no heart-to-heart with club owner Chris Van Straaten over the possibility of quitting, but admitted a lot of soul searching over the close season.

"In years gone by we've tended to trawl the club's retained list for the bedrock positions in the team," said Adams.

"I think we needed wholesale changes, rather than one or two. When you're using a lot of the same riders year after year after year, then they get a bit stale with the team manager's message.

"I think we'd arrived at the point where you want a load of people who haven't heard my message – or you go down the traditional path and find another team manager.

"There was a bit of thinking along those lines. If you look at people like Peter Karlsson, Ricky Wells, Freddie (Lindgren), (Ty) Proctor, all these guys on the retained list.

"I've worked with these guys for donkeys' years and there's nothing new for me, really, to tell them.

"But there's certainly something new for me to tell five new kids and that's the route Chris has decided we should go down.

"When I think I've got nothing left to offer the club, I'll stand aside. But I think we are some way off that."

Adams will offer the captaincy to Freddie Lindgren – but he has yet to settle on the riding order.

He revealed that the Parrys International Wolves' former kingpin will start the season in the second-string No 4 race jacket. Lindgren is looking for a return to form after a dreadful 2015.

But Adams believes he is strong enough to cope with the added burden of captaining the side, saying: "I think he's well capable of carrying that on his shoulders.

"We all know that heat 14 is the penultimate race on the programme; No.4 rides in that and we are obviously going to be looking to use him in a lot of heat 15s.

"When you've got potentially a No.1 rider coming out in heat 14 against weak opposition, a race he should win, he can gain confidence from that.

"Heat 15 is obviously a crucial affair and he will know exactly what the track is doing. So that's the thinking there."