Can Nuno get Wolves off to a winning start?
Depending on your levels of optimism, an opening day meeting with Middlesbrough is either a tough start or the chance for Wolves to make an early statement of intent for the season ahead.
What it most definitely represents is an opportunity for Nuno Espirito Santo to end the sequence which has afflicted his most recent predecessors at Molineux and win his first game in charge, writes Matt Maher.
Not since Dave Jones enjoyed a 1-0 FA Cup win at Nottingham Forest (courtesy of an Adam Proudlock goal) in January 2001 has a Wolves boss enjoyed a win in their first game in charge.
Since then, seven permanent managers (or eight if you count Terry Connor) have drawn their opening games in charge.
The number includes Mick McCarthy, who would go on to take Wolves back to the Premier League but had to settle for only one point on the opening day of the 2006/07 Championship season at Plymouth.
In truth, McCarthy was grateful to a Matthias Doumbe own goal to salvage a draw at Home Park, after Barry Hayles had given the hosts a first-half lead. Before McCarthy, came Glenn Hoddle. The former England boss had been out of work for more than a year after being axed by Tottenham when he replaced Jones in December 2004 and his initial impact was limited.
Hoddle watched Wolves lose 2-1 at home to Millwall just hours after his appointment had been confirmed. His first official game in charge came the following Saturday at Watford, where a Seyi Olofinjana equaliser was enough to earn Wolves a 1-1 draw.
Incredibly, that was a scoreline repeated in the next four games as Wolves became a no-brainer on the pools coupon. Hoddle would get his first win thanks to a 2-0 FA Cup win against Millwall, more than a month after he had taken charge.
When McCarthy was axed in February 2012 after the infamous 5-1 home defeat to Albion, the club decided to promote assistant Terry Connor into the top role until the end of the season.
The interim boss would pick up one of the four points earned during his brief but painful reign in the opening game, a 2-2 draw at Newcastle.
Relegated from the Premier League, Wolves turned to Stale Solbakken and while the Norwegian technically achieved a win in his first game, the score stood at 1-1 when the referee blew the whistle after extra-time, in the club’s League Cup first round tie at home to League Two Aldershot.
Wolves eventually went through after a penalty shoot-out, while Solbakken’s first Championship game in charge, at Leeds the following Saturday, would end in a 1-0 defeat.
Less than seven months later he was replaced by Dean Saunders but the Welshman could not halt Wolves’ slide toward the third tier.
His first game in charge was a 1-1 draw against Blackburn at Molineux, with a Roger Johnson equaliser earning the hosts a point.
Kenny Jackett was the man who would finally get Wolves moving in the right direction but even he could not break the cycle of opening game draws, after a 0-0 draw at Preston to open the 2013/14 campaign.
Three years later, Wolves fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Rotherham in Walter Zenga’s first game in charge, while Paul Lambert would, like Jackett, return from Preston with a 0-0 draw from his first game at the helm.
