30 Jun 2021 23:18:03
Nuno was really homesick then.

1.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 08:33:50
Did Nuno come out and say that though, or was it social media speculation? we all know that Nuno, coaching staff, and players didn't get to see their families during lockdown.

What is interesting is that Nuno was only given a two-year contract. Anyhow, I only have good wishes for Nuno and his staff.

2.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 09:10:09
Pretty sure homesick was the reason given by fans not the club.

For all Nuno's good work and success at Wolves. He did fail in an FA Cup semi final and Europa qf.

We lost an FA Cup semi that we were winning 2-0. And we had a much stronger squad than Watford.
I felt angry and frustrated that we gave up a 2-0 lead after.

And Nuno got the tactics wrong in Europa aswell. Jota should have started instead of Traore. But he fell out with Traore and Jota last season. As he couldn't decide who did the business for him. Tbf Jota got injured throughout but had scored two hatrick in the Europa league.

3.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 09:49:48
It was bizarre that Nuno at one point was not playing our two biggest talents, Traore and Jota. Also, Nino 'blinked' at two vital moments in the PL. The semi-final match against Watford, and in the closing weeks of PL second season when we missed out on top six by goal difference and exited from Europe. That said, he over-achieved at Wolves and it is a shame his tenure was brought to a premature end. I thought he would do a Fergie and stay forever. He will need more than luck at Spurs though!

4.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 10:12:37
Madman - are you sure? A long standing mid table Championship side lost an FA cup semi final and Europa quarter final in successive years?
If you had said our progress stalled last year then yes ok but the first 3 years were pretty special weren't they?
Re homesick, he might have been but I doubt it had much to do with the parting. He had to go because we had stalled, badly and for clearly identifiable reasons - (abysmal summer transfer window that meant there was no realistic plan in place if we got injuries, players losing form, being exhausted after no rest from a monsterous season the year before or simply growing old) - and someone was to blame (sorry Jas it was either Nuno or Shi) and he was the fall guy.

5.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 10:49:45
I thought Nuno had exhausted his time at Wolves and we needed to rejuvinate, but I am dissappointed that he has ended up at Spurs, which I think will be limited, only given 2 year contract appears a temporary stopgap appointment until a bigger name becomes available for Levy. Hope it doesn't mean an exodus of players from us particularly Neto and Coady, but not bothered about Troare, Moutinho, Patricio and even Neves if good alternatives are brought in. We need to bring players in with long term injuries ruling out Jonny, Neto and Podence, hope we signed Vithina.

6.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 12:24:31
Don't get me wrong I love Nuno to bits for everything he did just annoyed he went to Spurs because we know how they treat managers, he hits a bad run there he'll be gone.

Hednesford agree with you regarding Vithia but sadly the deadline has passed we might live to regret not signing him but oi trust in Bruno he obviously has a idea of who he wants and the system he'll use.

7.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 13:11:02
The future is old gold. Definitely with the investment Nuno had under Fosun we should have got to that FA Cup final and I think we would have given them a better game.
Sevilla was a different proposition as they have a lot of experience and play champions league. But Wolves had a squad that shouldn't have surrendered possession for large parts of the 2nd half like we did.
I've never called for Nuno's head even in the dark patches of form last season. But I don't know whether I would have trusted him with another transfer window. We surrendered in some games last season Southampton in the cup and Burnley at home were sad performances and nothing like the Nuno we know.
And would he play more possession based football when he had 3 at the back ingrained in him?
He had his favourites and some didn't deliver last season.
However I do have tremendous respect for what he did for the club. And if only for VAR decision in the 19/ 20 season we may have been playing champions league football.

8.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 14:51:16
The assumption was made that Nuno was homesick, stuck here during lockdown, which was supposed to partly explain our bad run last season. I don't think he ever said it himself. He can't be all that homesick as he applied for the Palace, Everton and Spurs jobs! If it all goes wrong at Spurs, the homesick rumour can't be used again, can it?

9.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 15:25:05
Madman - can't argue that at 2-0 with minutes to play against Watford we def should have reached the final.
By the time we got to Seville the team were playing on fumes and yes it was disappointing - IF Jimenez had scored the pen the game would have been v different but he didn't
Re investment whilst the investment Nuno had in his first year was high, alhough not the highest that year even, for a championship side - hence yes winning the Championship was perhaps expected - the investment made over the 4 years of his reign, (fees and wages), relative to most Prem league sides was not excessive by any means. If you also consider the state of the squad compared to the average Prem league side when he arrived it is pretty easy to argue that most of that initial investment and indeed much of the later spend was catch up.
If you take a longer period then the money invested in the Wolves side, (fees and wages) by its owners was tiny compared to that invested by most Prem sides [This is obviouly not Fosun or Nuno's fault as they weren't there ] Nuno though had to deal with that situation when he arrived and proceeded to out perform numerous Premier League clubs who had spent tens of millions if not hundreds of millions more, in fees and wages, on their squads.
However if he was to blame for last summer's transfer window I take everything back and Nuno should have been sacked in September as it was a tragedy that a side so close, as you state, to Champions League football was let down so badly.
I guess I am angry that having watched Wolves for over 50 years we had finally got close enough to smell success and then it was torn away from us - potentially, as far as my lifetime is concerned, for ever - by a cataclysmicly stupid transfer window.
Cant disagree re Saints but Nuno thought he had to save our Prem place.
Otherwise he performed miracles all things considered.
He told us before the summer transfer window that the squad was to small and inflexible, (and most of them were dead on their feet after the prior year), but we then had the debacle of last summers window.
Despite this huge disadvantage he had us 4 points off top before Jimenez went down and we had no replacement in place.
Then as other injuries hit we were in freefall and relegation was aLmost a certainty with him calling for help in January only to be publicly humiliated by being forced to backtrack and say we could get by.
He circled the wagons and dug out v ugly results and yes some horrible performances but he had no one left - the bench was straight out of mothercare - and even the first 11 had injured players, {perhap those favourites you talk about} doing shifts when they should have been in rehab!
We played 3 at the back because it suited our squad. He made a silk purse out of a sows ear - for example is Connor Coady a prem class CB in a 4, Doherty a prem class RB, or Neves and Moutinho box to box CMs but each of them were brilliant in the jobs he gave them?
V v v sorry though for the massive rant Madman!

10.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 16:31:55
Spot on future saved me the effort, plus I said I wouldn't go on about Nuno again! I have read recently that the decision to buy Silva was Jeff Shi's. He may be proved right in the long term but at the time it was a stupid buy considering what we actually needed!
Good luck Nuno you're always welcome as far as I'm concerned.
As for how things are now Jury's out.

11.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 16:59:16
To be honest Ken I'm more worried by the possibility/ probability that Lage will want to change the system than the quality of the squad. We have some v good players but far from certain they can play a different system. Too many of them are slow, slight or just too unathletic to play a more open game and no amount of drilling in a new system is going to change that.
The system suits the current squad we have, including Semedo who we bought last summer, and surely we can't change the whole squad in one go so why are we going to change the system?
It will be interesting to see how Lage approaches the problem - big changes to the squad/ side or will he try to teach old dogs new tricks.
He really needs his big players Traore, Boly, Neves etc to stand up and deliver for him.

12.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 17:55:14
future. I have read a supposed "quote" saying he wants to alter the system but it will take time needing a change in recruitment that cannot be done overnight. Read into that what you will. Who knows it would appear that they are waiting to see who goes out before deciding who they can bring in. Don't worry I'm sure Jeff knows what he's doing.

13.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 17:57:22
Me thinks he will want to replace all of nunos legacy at our club, and stamp his own, which is fair play,
But will he do it all at once or bit by bit, time will tell.

14.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 18:01:35
Had we not signed Silva, he would have ended up somewhere else. It is reported that AC Milan, Liverpool and Real Madrid were interested but wanted to wait another season. Wolves struck the deal very quickly. Also remember that Silva had a £105m buy out clause and is the youngest ever scorer in the Portugese top flight.

If, and it is a big if, he had gone to another club and done well, Wolves fans would be questioning why we didn't spend the £35m as the potential was clear.

Another situation in which the club is in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

I remember a few years ago, Man Utd were in a similar dilemma with a young Portugese player who was 17 at the time. Rather than risk losing out, they took the risk and paid £12m for him.

Sometimes you just have to take a risk.

15.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 18:27:48
Jas With respect my friend we are not as big as Man U and putting the farm on a youngster is a brilliant idea if you are happy your first team squad is ok. Jeff is CEO and should defer to people who know better. I have no problem with Silva but we had needs that still haven't been met. We were headed in the right direction but he made an error of judgement. We could have ended up with a brilliant youngster in the championship!

16.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 20:11:54
I'm not comparing us to Man Utd. What I'm saying is that sometimes you have to take risks. Just like we did when we bought Jota for £13m and sold him 3 years later for 3 times the amount.

17.) 01 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 20:50:08
Jas as you would expect I agree with Ken and would say that Liverpool, Real and AC are all bigger clubs than us these days and could have taken the risk, which we probably shouldn't have done.
I would add that Ronaldo was and still is a superb athlete and thus whilst no one could gtee his football would be good enough we knew his physicality would be. With Silva his lack of athletic ability means that the risk of him not converting, what we can't deny was, a great youth record into adult football was higher.
HOWEVER you make an excllent point.
If Wolves wait for a top player to be a sure thing we miss out on them to bigger teams. We didn't pounce on Dias and then Man City came in and we had no chance.
Bizarrely then maybe the error of Shi was not pulling back or lack of ambition but foolish over ambition. He tried to hit a 6 and had his stumps knocked over ( watchng cricket now! )
Maybe instead of signing Silva hoping he would be a world beater and move us into the big league with one single stroke, he should have continued to build the team steadily. He should have bought a couple, ( or more given the fee we paid), of more established solid pros so that we became regular Europa contenders and then we would have been in a postion to attract and afford the players that would have moved us up to Champions league - we were after all actually pretty close to that even after only 1 year in Europe and £35m spent conservatively and wisely might well have done the trick.
Odd that I appear to be preaching patience but you have to be balanced and rationale and the Silva purchase was sadly a risk too far. Indeed even if he makes it and I wrote a lengthy defence of him ( yes! ) the other day pointing out that his reading of the game is superb and could mean that he becomes a Gerd Muller type player and thus virtually pricelss it is still not a transfer we should have done.

18.) 02 Jul 2021
01 Jul 2021 23:37:31
Personally, I think Silva will have an excellent season and be worth a lot more than we paid for him.

19.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 11:03:26
Jas I very much hope that you are right and that he becomes what Jeff bought. He's obviously been working on his bulking up over the summer. As we've seen his movement is very good hope he will now have the power. I'm still sure he's the right player at the wrong time. I hope he goes on to be a great success just a shame that we lost Nuno because of it.

20.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 11:23:30
To be the best you have to become the best by trying new tactics, players etc etc. We need to move away from 7th is the best we can hope for or we are still in the prem. Or he is the best manager in 40 years. The last 40 years before Nuno and Fosun were absolutely shocking it's not like we are comparing Fergie with Matt Bushby. We are comparing Nuno against Colin Lee, Dave Jones, Glen Hoddle, Graham Taylor, Dean Saunders, Solbakken, Mccarthy to name a few. Leicester have won the league and an FA Cup always fighting for more.

21.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 12:45:58
Ken68, do you really think we lost Nuno because we signed one of the most sought after teenagers in world football and were forced to play him earlier than planned, or would you say that the long term injuries to Jonny and Jimenez along with injuries to Neto, Saiss, Boly and others highlighted Nunos inability to adapt.

22.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 12:47:02
What do you mean coady. Coady is always spouting " I love this club". A player does not have to move if he does not want to. Let's see loyalty at its finest then. And how come it's only wolves who seem to be hit with ffp. because it certainly doesn't seem to affect any of the other clubs.

23.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 14:19:29
Had Man U/ City/ Pool etc bought Fabio Silva last season, they would probably have let him stay where he was on loan for a couple of seasons to continue his progress. We couldn't afford that luxury; when we spend we need a more immediate return. Then fate took a hand and we had to play him. I personally think he will come good, very good but I'm not happy that we have lost Nuno partly through the Silva signing. No silver/ silva lining in this one!

24.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 14:20:48
Jas - you have answered your own question. There was nothing wrong in signing Silva (who you accept wasn't expected {or as it turned out ready}, to play) if you already had a squad that could carry him or could afford to buy him and the players that you needed to buy as well.
But as the injuries showed - Otto was injured before the season started and we bought Marcal to cover him but he turned out to be injury prone a well - we didn't have a squad that could cover them.
This wasn't a surprise to me nor should it have been to Jeff Shi as Nuno had told the club after the Seville game that the squad needed more senior pros ready to play. It was obvious, see my post of early August 2020, that there were also gaping holes in certain areas of the squad back up CF, CM and RCB being three of them. Thus when as you say Boly, the only player capable of covering RCB, was out, how should Nuno have adapted, who could he bring in? He had to play Dendonker meaning that we were short in midfield.
Having sold Jota the only player capable of covering Jimenez what should he have done then - play Silva? Well he did and that not surprisingly didn't work.
The squad after 2019/ 20 was obviously far too small and we had got away with it due to a lot of luck with injuries and by flogging to death some of the senior pros. Buying 4 kids not ready to play, an injury prone LB to replace an injured LB and a RB to replace Doherty who you had sold did absolutely nothing to solve that problem.
So blaming Nuno for not being able to make bricks without clay is a bit rich isn't it?
PS Madman good post - I think we were still on an upward trajectory and 7th wasn't the limit for this squad and system but fair enough let's try and go a dififerent way.
Sadly though instead of looking at the squad and deciding who could play and who couldn't in the new system and replacing them accordingly we changed the system without majorly changing the squad.
Doherty, who as Spurs discovered, can only play in the system, correctly left but he was replaced by another player better suited for the old system than the new.
Otherwise though Coady, Moutinho, Neves and Saiss for whom the system was key remained in place and we bought absolutely no one ready to play other than Marcal who was sadly permanently injured.
We moved from all driving on the left to cars driving on the left but lorries and buses driving on the right.
A crash occured and I would say that was despite, not due to, Nuno who performed pretty damn well to keep us respectable even if it was ugly at times.
There appears to be a lack of clarity of thought and joined up strategy at the club - not surprising as an engineer from Shanghai who has zero football expereince took upon himself to exit those that did and we suffered accordingly.
Sorry Jas the more I think about the more i'm certain that yes Shi should have gone not Nuno.

25.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 14:05:47
Jas you've just listed 5 first team starting players and added plus others! Out of the smallest squad in the Premier league I cannot think of a manager at any other club that could "adapt" to that. Ultimately he fell out with Shi and there was only one winner of that one. So as Mendes is his agent he told him to find him a new club. Not exactly struggled to find work has he. I'm sure he'll do ok as I'm sure we will. Only thing for sure is we have lost momentum and I think it will take some time to recover from all this as we won't be chucking much money around by the looks of things.

26.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 15:22:04
Wasn't it Nuno who said he wanted to work with a small squad. Hindsights wonderful isn't it.

27.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 16:18:44
Jas read future's above Nuno saying after Seville. No hindsight required Jeff ignored him or conned him to sign the new contract. Something stinks about last season and who said what. The whole appointment of Lage has been very low key and very little is coming out from the club. They want support yet don't say much to encourage it frankly!

28.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 18:40:24
Madman - re the system Wolves that played and if it needed changing/ refreshing to a more progressive system so that we could challenge at the top I have just been out walking with my son who reminded me that Chelsea's manager Tuchel - who won the Champions league last year - plays exactly the same system as Nuno : 3CBs, 2WBs, 2DMs, 2WF and 1 CF.
Line them up
Mendy: Patricio
James: Semedo
Azp (sp) : Boly
Christiansen: Coady
Chilwell : Otto
Jorginho :Neves
Kante : Moutino
Havertz : Traore
Werner : Jimenez
Mount : Neto
Are we man for man that much worse?
The difference is that they have 10 to 15 or even more reserves who can play at a similar level and we have 2 or 3.
Nuno wanted to change that after the Seville game but for what ever reason we didnt!
The rest is history!

29.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 19:51:53
A good read on this feed.

Me personally all I see is simple kind of like black or white and don't really see the ins and outs the grey areas.
I see the team plays well everything is fine happy days,
The team plays poor fans want to find out the reasons and who is to blame which is common for football fans I think.
I think nuno could of done things better last season but that is obvious as some games or many games our team was set up too defence minded and played poor in a lot of the first half of games. This was down to nuno his style our identity as nuno said.
No one could of fore seen the injuries we had it imo was just unfortunate for fosun and nuno and us fans.
Hoping all will be splendid in the coming seasons.

30.) 02 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 19:56:17
Well played future. Well presented!
I for one was quite happy with our system two great years then we ran out of fit players. The only problems we seemed to have for two years was beating the bottom teams. If wed beaten them we would have been easily in the top four. No I was never bored!

31.) 03 Jul 2021
02 Jul 2021 23:52:24
I didn't know so many on here knew the inner workings at the club. Thanks for clarifying what Nuno said and what Shi promised. I can't comment on that because I wasn't present at that meeting like some of you were.

32.) 03 Jul 2021
03 Jul 2021 08:09:33
I wasn't present at any meeting but fortunately didn't need to be as Nuno said it on national TV after the Sevile game. If you missed the match it was widely reported and a google search of "Nuno's comment after Seville game" brings up various articles such as, bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53746222

Clearly I have no idea what Shi said or promised as that wasn't on TV but fortunately we don't need to know what he said because we all know what he did - or rather didn't?

33.) 03 Jul 2021
03 Jul 2021 11:37:25
future. Quite that covers that then! Remember it well I'm just sad it didn't happen but time to get on with it now. Quite frankly Jas I love sarcasm as much as anyone but when you use it make sure you have your facts right. We all want the same thing mate a successful team for our Wolves and the recent past makes us want more. Be terrible if its gone over bad decisions yet again.