WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - APRIL 25: Wolves badge on a corner flag during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley at Molineux on April 25, 2021 in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. Sporting stadiums around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)
Julen Lopetegui departs Wolves: The club is in turmoil on the eve of the Premier League season, but what exactly is going on at Molineux?
Julen Lopetegui has left Wolves following a turbulent summer at Molineux. Financial Fair Play is a component in the difficulties, but what is the situation, and how are they coping? Staying in the Premier League requires teamwork, which is easier said than done…
Selling your greatest player and spending none of the money before parting ways with the head coach days before the season begins would be a smart place to start if a team was seeking to avoid relegation. Wolves are already a crisis club in the Premier League.
Julen Lopetegui resigned by mutual agreement, leaving behind grim clues of unmet promises. Ruben Neves leads a number of high-profile departures, with reserve right-back Matt Doherty arriving on a free transfer. It is hardly the reconstruction he had hoped for.
Nobody comes out of this well. Everybody agrees that Wolves’ hopes of staying in the Premier League this season are compromised by the loss of an elite manager. But Lopetegui was backed with big money in January and the financial pressures at the club are real.
It is hard for Wolves to regret appointing him in the first place when his impact was so positive. The former Real Madrid and Spain coach had inherited a bleak situation with the club bottom of the Premier League table at Christmas but he changed everything.
Wolves eventually finished in the top 13 for a fifth consecutive season. But they effectively spent the summer budget in January to do so. Matheus Cunha came in for a bloated £43m fee. Pablo Sarabia, Mario Lemina, Joao Gomes and Craig Dawson arrived too.
What is unclear is how aware of that Lopetegui, who took some time to be convinced to come to Wolves, was back in January. “We came here believing in a different project,” he told Guillem Balague recently. Even the plan B had been abandoned, he argued.
