Fan column: Wolves fans deserve more than the disaster of 2025

A new Head coach speaking positively, engaging with supporters and most importantly, kicking off with a couple of convincing wins. The chaos of the final days of the Gary O’Neil tenure mercifully consigned to history. 

Remarkable to even contemplate that before the end of what eventually degenerated into a truly harrowing year, our executive chairman was taking serious steps to reinstating O’Neil to the position he had recently dismissed him from. 

Could only happen at Wolves; Vitor Pereira, initial job successfully completed didn’t survive for the duration but more significantly neither did Jeff Shi. The lack of trust felt by the supporters had reached breaking point; the bizarre BBC interview more a flight of fantasy than a serious appraisal of how to operate a Premier League club surely the final straw in a fractured relationship far beyond repair. 

But there remain a number of unknowns; not least the influence that Shi might continue to exert as CEO of Fosun Sports with Wolves under the umbrella of that organisation. 

The most pressing concern is surely who will be actively responsible for making the key decisions concerning overall strategy, transfer policy and the much-neglected liaison and communication with supporters. 

The appointment of a permanent executive chairman is paramount with clear scrutiny as to what expertise and experience the candidate brings to the role. Currently, the position is undertaken by an interim appointment without any practical acquaintance of the game. 

If Fosun intend to continue with such a policy, then it’s hard to envisage any immediate improvement to what many have described as ‘managed decline.’

New Year reflections? Backward thinking policies have given cause for concern for a long period, but did we really expect the club to degenerate into such an atrocious and incomprehensible mess? What hurts the most is seeing other clubs striving for improvement, actively seeking to boost their squad options, upgrading facilities and pushing to achieve to the height of their potential. 

Wolves in contrast, diminishing, static and entrenched, gaslighting their supporters with a juggernaut of wholly unconvincing flannel which deludes nobody. 

The reality sees a team competitively dismantled and starkly staring abject humiliation squarely in the face with half a season still to play. 

The indications of the perils we were inviting were abundantly transparent but contemptuously ignored; neglect reaping its inevitable consequences. Fans have been sold grotesquely short and we deserve better.