Image Credit: @premierleague Twitter
Despite the promising signs in late February, early March, Wolverhampton Wanderers have unfortunately been confirmed to be the first team to be relegated this season following the 0-0 draw between Crystal Palace and West Ham United on Monday night. Wolverhampton Wanderers who sit at the bottom of the Premier League table with 17 points only have 5 league games remaining in the season which means that the maximum number of points Wolves can accumulate, should they win all of their remaining games, is 15 points. That would give Wolves a total points tally of 32 points which is unfortunately not enough to overtake current 17Th place West Ham United who are on 33 points. Mathematically it is impossible for Wolves to escape relegation, the best the club can hope for is to maybe finish has high as they can in the bottom 3 so they can end the season not sitting at rock bottom.
What went wrong this season?
There are possibly many factors at play as to why Wolverhampton Wanderers have had a difficult 2025/2026 campaign. On the surface there is possibly 2 big reasons as to why Wolves are where they are now and the first is the lack of a recruitment strategy. Clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers will always have top clubs from the Premier League as well as outside England, come to poach their top performers transfer window after transfer window. For clubs like Wolves, it is very important that they scout potential replacements for their top stars as to not allow the club to drop in quality following big money sales. AFC Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion are prefect examples of clubs that expertly go through this process season after season. Wolves this season have left go of 8 of their top players to either top clubs or have just released them on free transfers without proper recruitment to replace them, some names include Mattheus Cunha, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Jørgen Strand Larsen, etc.
The next factor would be giving too much time to the then manager, Vitor Pereira. Vitor Pereira was brought in December of the 2024/2025 season where Wolves were 19th in the league with only 2 wins in their opening 15 games of the season. Pereira came in and lead Wolves to a 16th place finish that ensured their safety from relegation however Wolves did not end the season on a high as they failed to win any of their last 4 games of the season. It got worse as Wolves failed to win any of their Pre-season friendlies as well as they went into this current season breaking the record for the longest consecutive losing streak in the league. What was a surprise to many about Wolve’s situation was during their poor start to the season, the upper management had offered Pereira a new 3-year deal despite Wolves sitting bottom of the Premier League table. Roughly 2 months after the new contract, Vitor Pereira was let go following the club’s continued disappointing start to the season.
8 Years in England’s top flight
Back in 2018, Wolverhampton Wanderers regained promotion to the Premier League for the first time in years since their relegation in 2012. Under Nuno Espírito Santo, Wolves came into the Premier League with powerful intent as they finished their first season back in the Premier League in 7th as well as with Europa League qualification. Since then, Wolves had a reputation for being known as the “Big 6 killers” as they had an excellent win record against the Premier League’s Big 6 clubs in Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs. Wolves also gained the nickname of “Portugal FC” as majority of their squad was made up of Portuguese players such Ruben Neves, João Moutinho, Rui Patrício, Diogo Jota, Pedro Neto, Nélson Semedo, etc. This also included their manager Espírito Santo who is also Portuguese, it almost became the club’s identity as it became almost a formality that every transfer window, Wolves were going to bring in a Portuguese player and turn them into a star. Since Nuno Espírito Santo’s departure to become manager of Tottenham, Wolves were slowing losing their identity as well as their entertaining dominance over the Premier League Big 6.
Unfortunately over the years Wolves had lost a majority of their star players to fellow Premier League clubs or to other top clubs in Europe as well as in Saudi Arabia and as mentioned previously already, Wolves’ lack of a solid recruitment strategy as well as an identity has led them down the path they are on now where relegations is now confirmed.
Championship Rebuild?
The natural process that follows a long time Premier League team being relegated is the financial loss, the mass clear-out of players and of course the rebuild. Playing in the English top flight means clubs get paid a huge sums of money due to broadcasting rights as well as other sponsorships that come with the Premier League status. Without that, clubs that get relegated can’t financially hold on to their top players as well as their top players would also mostly likely not want to play in any lower divisions so they would seek transfers elsewhere. Due to the financial constraints, relegated clubs cannot even sell their best players for a profit or at the very least at valuation that they prefer as they need to get the players off their books as soon as possible. The next step is looking to rebuild the squad and try to climb back into England’s top flight which is not easy feat but not impossible as plenty of clubs, including Wolverhampton Wanderers have gone through the exact same thing. Sometimes it just takes 1 season while other times it may take multiple years before the club can return to England’s top flight.
The big job for Wolves now is to decide if manager Rob Edwards is the man to lead Wolves in the English Championship as well as trying to decide how to rebuild the squad going forward for the future.
