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.
Comments