Wolves hopeful they can kick on after Vitor Pereira’s impact at Molineux

National World - LocalTV

Under Vítor Pereira’s leadership, his Wolves team developed into a resilient and combative unit that frequently rose to the challenge on big occasions. We caught up with Charlie Haffenden of BirminghamWorld to look back on the highlights of Wolves’ campaign—a season that, despite its ups and downs, has left fans optimistic for what lies ahead.

Transcript

00:00Under Vitor Pereira's leadership, his Wolves team developed into a resilient and combative unit

00:09that frequently rose to the challenge on big occasions.

00:14Key victories against strong opposition and performances above their years

00:19demonstrated a squad with real competitive spirit.

00:23Their momentum was built on a solid spine and fearless midfield energy,

00:26showing that even without the biggest budget, Wolves managed to punch way above their weight.

00:32Now the big question is whether this squad can progress further under Pereira's guidance next season.

00:40We caught up with Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World to look back on the highlights of Wolves' campaign,

00:47a season that, despite its ups and downs, has left fans optimistic for what lies ahead.

00:53Charlie, let's look at Wolves in terms of their moments of the season.

00:59It was obviously a sort of season of two halves, pardon the cliché,

01:04and in terms of the turnaround that Vitor Pereira came in and pulled off,

01:09certainly we've mentioned it before how incredible it was.

01:12A lot of credit ended up being nominated for Premier League Manager of the Season as well,

01:17albeit on the champions taking that crown.

01:20But, you know, a lot of respect for Vitor Pereira in terms of the worst moments.

01:25You know, let's look back at the first half of that season under Gary O'Neill.

01:29It wasn't going to plan at all.

01:31The goals conceded were absolutely, you know, monstrous,

01:34and they were just completely being taken to the soil by so many teams.

01:38At home as well, it was really becoming a dismal place,

01:42modern new football Wolves, and sort of carrying on from the back of last season as well.

01:45You know, 2024 was really not the year for Wolves.

01:50In terms of that worst moment, is it more of a period,

01:54that first whole half of the season we could maybe look at,

01:57because the record was only pointing one way, and that was the championship?

02:01Yeah, I think it is the entire period.

02:05Two wins in your first 16 Premier League games is relegation for, quite simply.

02:10Gary 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,

02:17getting 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,

02:23but 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 Yerzan 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 Agbedou 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.

02:55And he'd also start press conferences by saying,

02:58I'm not going to have any excuses,

02:59and then go on and talk about many things that you could argue are excuses.

03:04So a terrible period, but at least Wolves have said goodbye to that,

03:07and on the rise again now.

03:08Yeah, obviously Vito Pereira comes in and sets a new top-flight record for Wolves

03:13in terms of consecutive wins.

03:15They had the FA Cup run where they could have gone very, very far in that

03:19if they didn't knock out its penalties with Mateus Cunha's red card.

03:23And Mateus Cunha, he has to probably stand out as a positive for Wolves this season.

03:28It will be the difficult periods they've had.

03:30He was magnificent.

03:32You know, 15 goals as a Brazilian equals a record in the Premier League as well.

03:37And as you touch on Emmanuel Agbedou as well,

03:39so many positives in the second half of the season.

03:41What did you make of the turnaround that Pereira's come in?

03:45Is that sort of the standout moment?

03:47But, you know, you do have to look at a few of the results as well,

03:50and it is a bit of a stark reminder how tough the Premier League's going to be.

03:53It's not going to be plain sailing unless Wolves get some, you know,

03:57real good business over the summer winter.

03:59Yeah, 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,

04:10OK, 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 points before the pints, the whole thing,

04:18I'm going to go to the pub and meet the fans of Wolverhampton.

04:21I think it's become a little bit, gone out of proportion a little bit now,

04:24maybe spoken about too much.

04:25I'm now mentioning it again myself, but it does show, doesn't it,

04:28the connection with the fans and how important it is.

04:31And we've seen that with the results on the pitch,

04:33ending up so far away from the relegation zone,

04:35finishing above Tottenham Hotspur, who come on to win the Europa League.

04:39I think that's a pretty amazing achievement from Wolves,

04:42and hopefully they can go and kick on next year.

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