Wolves in crisis: how has it suddenly become toxic at Molineux?

Defeat away to Fulham on Saturday afternoon will leave many fans insisting Vitor Pereira's job has become untenable because those levels have plummeted.

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Vitor Pereira reacts to fans after the final whistle against Burnley. Pic: Jacob King/PA Wire.

Seven weeks ago Vitor Pereira signed a three-year contract extension at Wolves and confidently promised that their level would increase. 

Defeat away to Fulham on Saturday afternoon will leave many fans insisting his job has become untenable because those levels have plummeted.

These are uncertain, toxic times at Molineux as disgruntled supporters grow increasingly agitated by Fosun, the Chinese owners who have done little to fight back against a perceived lack of long-term strategy. 

“Now is a time for stability,” the increasingly unpopular chairman Jeff Shi said when Pereira’s new deal was announced, its timing peculiar since the team had made a winless start to the campaign. 

That wait for a league victory continues yet there appears no imminent threat of the Portuguese losing his job because Wolves’ hierarchy are mindful of breaking a cycle where head coaches arrive mid-season, secure their safety with an uplift only to struggle at the start of the following campaign.

Bottom of the table and with a worrying habit of conceding late goals, this does feel eerily reminiscent of a familiar routine. Pereira, though, sees little reason to panic as he works towards finding a solution to their many issues on the pitch.

“I don't feel that the club is in crisis. I feel that there is a crisis of results. Nothing else,” he said on Friday. “If you come here, you see the people connected, trying to help, trying to give everything for the players and the supporters.

“I understand the supporters because they feel the club. They want results. If you start to win games, everything changes. And the same supporters that today criticise me and the players need to understand that this is the manager, this is our team, this is the players that we have.

“[They] need to help. As a family, we need to help the players to be better and to get results if we want to stay in the Premier League.” 

The sight of Pereira remonstrating so passionately with furious fans following last Sunday’s last-gasp defeat at home to Burnley was easily construed as a fracture in their relationship that would prove irreparable.

He remains adamant that he was merely imploring those airing their grievances to maintain a united front by giving their players support rather than criticism. 

He says he was certainly not angling for a row with those he so publicly enjoyed having a pint with in the final weeks of last season.

“I went to say to them that we are fighting and we must fight together,” he said. “I understand the frustration. I was frustrated also. This is football. The last game, the result was not the result we wanted but I felt the connection between supporters and the team. That’s the most important thing.” 

As so often, it is the head coach who must absorb the venom – an effective barrier for the decision-makers behind the scenes.

There is an appreciation from many outside the club that Wolves’ biggest problem is beyond the control of any head coach. 

A short few years ago their recruitment, influenced heavily by a close relationship with superagent Jorge Mendes, was key to their success. Players, many previously unheard of in England, would arrive from abroad and turn out to be rather decent.

The idea was for them to impress and be sold on at a profit to be reinvested again – a method familiar with many clubs not possessing superclub wealth. 

But that model is no longer working in the Black Country because the big-money departures, accumulating fees approaching €400m in the past few years, have not been replaced adequately.

Even last summer they said goodbye to Matheus Cunha, now doing his best to become a modern day Eric Cantona at Manchester United, and impressive wing back Rayan Ait-Nouri, who went to Manchester City. 

Twelve months previous Pedro Neto left for Chelsea, key centre back Max Kilman was signed by West Ham. And the season before that Matheus Nunes, Ruben Neves and Nathan Collins were among the high-profile sales.

Pereira has nothing new to add around their difficult summer – “I don't want to speak again, again, again about what was our pre-season, the markets” – but his admission that they could do with bringing in some attacking reinforcements come January pointed to his own belief that he is not facing the sack any time soon.

As ever, however, there is a caveat – despite his wishes he knows the club is unlikely to be financially capable of signing a consistent game-changer.

“I don't know if we have money to buy this kind of player, but I agree we need not one, but two,” he said.

In the meantime he is working to “find the solution” for a team that has appeared capable in segments of matches but, so far, proven entirely incapable of maintaining that effort for an entire 90 minutes.

From 7am to 7pm every day he is at the training ground trying to find the solution and at home it is proving increasingly difficult to switch off.

He has shuffled the personnel and changed the system, departing from the 3-4-3 formation that had served them so well last season, with little success.

More important than tactics is boosting the confidence of a fragile changing room, which brings him back to the need for fans to dig deep in search of positive reinforcement from the stands. 

Pereira won plenty of admirers for his bonhomie with the same passionate folk he was engaged in that heated back and forth with last weekend.

His mantra of “points then pints” was easy to get behind and while he is not yet entering the last-chance saloon, he is missing being able to pull up a stool at the bar.

“Of course because my spirit is not… I'm not an actor. If I'm happy, I like to go to the pub and to drink my beer. If I'm not happy, I stay home, trying to find solutions.” 

He will be given more opportunities to solve their long list of problems but he must understand that without a reasonable uptick soon the patience he is refreshingly being shown will expire.