00:00Well, it was certainly a season of two halves for Wolves.
00:07Under Vito Pereira's guidance, they built a resilient, combative side that often rose to the big occasions,
00:13with wins against top six opposition and key performances from emerging players showed a side capable of competing with real purpose.
00:22Momentum was generated throughout a strong spine and fearless energy in midfield,
00:27evidence that even without the biggest budget, Wolves found a way to be greater than some of their parts.
00:35The question now, can this squad take the next step under Pereira next season?
00:39We spoke to Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World to reflect on the standout moments from Wolves' campaign,
00:47a season that, despite its ups and downs, gave fans plenty to hope for in the future.
00:53Charlie, let's look at Wolves in terms of their moments of the season.
01:00It was obviously a sort of season of two halves, you know, pardon the cliché.
01:05And in terms of the turnaround that Vito Pereira came in and pulled off was certainly, we've mentioned it before, how incredible it was.
01:13You know, a lot of credit ended up being nominated for Premier League Manager of the Season as well,
01:18albeit, you know, Arnish Lott champions taking that crown.
01:22But, you know, a lot of respect for Vito Pereira in terms of the worst moments.
01:26You know, let's look back at the first half of that season under Gary O'Neill.
01:30It wasn't going to plan at all.
01:32The goals conceded were absolutely, you know, monstrous.
01:35And they were just completely being taken to the saw by so many teams.
01:39At home as well, it was really becoming a dismal place.
01:42Smaller new foot for Wolves and sort of carrying on from the back of last season as well.
01:46You know, 2024 was really not the year for Wolves.
01:51In terms of that worst moments, is it more of a period, that first whole half of the season we could maybe look at?
01:58Because the record was only pointing one way and that was the Championship.
02:03Yeah, I think it is the entire period.
02:05Two wins in your first 16 Premier League games is relegation for, quite simply.
02:10And Gary O'Neill probably should have been sacked a bit earlier than he was.
02:13I think just the fact that the board had backed him so much in the summer, getting that new contract in
02:18and hoping that he could be the man to turn around their fortunes.
02:21There was all the excuses of, oh, it was a difficult fixture run.
02:24But once you're 16 games in, you've played most of the teams in the division
02:27and you've got to have better results than they did.
02:30They're a bit of bad luck at times, but there was no excusing the defensive record,
02:34especially conceding so many goals from set pieces.
02:37Just unbelievable.
02:38I know there's quite a few injuries in there.
02:41The Yersin Mosquera one was a big one.
02:43Wolves kind of lacking a big dominant centre-half for a while.
02:46And we've seen how much of a difference Emmanuel Agpadu has made since the January window.
02:50But yeah, I do think that it wasn't good enough at all, regardless from Gary O'Neill.
02:54Too many excuses.
02:56And he'd also start press conferences by saying, I'm not going to have any excuses.
03:00And then go on and talk about many things that you could argue are excuses.
03:03So, a terrible period, but at least Wolves have said goodbye to that and on the rise again now.
03:08Yeah, obviously, Vitor Pereira comes in and sets a new top-flight record for Wolves in terms of consecutive wins.
03:16They had the FA Cup run where they could have gone very, very far in that if they didn't knock out its penalties with Mateus Cunha's red card.
03:24And Mateus Cunha, he has to probably stand out as a positive for Wolves this season.
03:28You know, albeit the difficult periods they've had, he was magnificent.
03:33You know, 15 goals as a Brazilian equals a record in the Premier League as well.
03:37And as you touch on Emmanuel Agpadu as well, so many positives in the second half of the season.
03:43What did you make of the turnaround that Pereira has come in?
03:46Is that sort of the standout moment?
03:47But, you know, you do have to look at a few of the results as well.
03:51And it is a bit of a stark reminder how tough the Premier League is going to be.
03:53It's not going to be plain sailing unless Wolves get some, you know, real good business over the summer window.
04:00Yeah, I think it's been an extraordinary rise under Pereira.
04:03Feels like a weird moment to say a standout because they've been relegated.
04:07But that win away at Leicester, just kind of an immediate feeling of, OK, we're back now.
04:11We can try and push on from here.
04:13It might not seem much of winning against a team that ends up getting relegated.
04:16But at that point, it was a six-pointer.
04:19It was a must-win for Wolves.
04:20Then to go and back it up against Manchester United on home soil as well.
04:24Starting to get that belief back in Molyneux.
04:26But it does show, doesn't it, the connection with the fans and how important it is.
04:29And we've seen that with the results on the pitch.
04:32Ending up so far away from the relegation zone.
04:34Finishing above Tottenham Hotspur, who come on to win the Europa League.
04:38I think that's a pretty amazing achievement from Wolves.
04:40And hopefully they can go and kick on next year.
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