'Never seems like a fully happy place' - ex-Wolves striker has promotion doubts

Kevin Doyle says it is ‘hard to call’ whether Wolves will get promoted this season because Molineux ‘never seems like a fully happy place with the owners’.

The striker - who netted 33 goals in 179 appearances for Wolves between 2009 and 2015 - described the shock summer sacking of Rob Edwards as a ‘strange move’.

He also cast doubt on whether returning hero Raul Jimenez could finish the campaign as top goalscorer because the Championship has ‘evolved’ after being asked the Old Gold’s hopes for this season.

Speaking to OLBG, who offer the Best Betting Sites, Doyle said: “Wolves have been hard to call for a number of years, and it never seems like a fully happy place with the owners. It's such a fabulous club, and they did really well to stay up for so long, so it's probably harsh to criticize the owners.

“However, they went from a club spending lots of money for a number of years when they first arrived in the Premier League to becoming a selling club, and you could slowly see the relegation coming.

“Regarding the manager, they brought Rob Edwards in at Christmas when they were already relegated and then got rid of him. I thought they actually picked up between Christmas and the end of the season, and then they sacked him, which was a strange move.

“We won't know the full story until the end of the season. They have pulled unknown managers out of the bag before and done really well, getting promoted when you wouldn't have expected it.”

Wolves made the early signing of Kieran Trippier and Jimenez, before taking a more circumspect approach to the remainder of the transfer window - though they have also signed free agents Ghislain Konan and Bertrand Traore since deadline day.

Asked if Jimenez could finish the season as the top scorer in the Championship, Doyle added: “It's not like it was in the Championship, where you needed your centre-forward to be a really good goalscorer. It's evolved, it's spread out a bit more, but you still need someone.

“Back in the day, every Championship team needed one or two strikers getting 20 goals at least. I think it's evolved since then. Even the Premier League is the same, I suppose. But it depends on how they're playing, or how the manager has them set up. Raul Jimenez is a good player, and Wolves have got good players.

“But I find that in the Championship, every season, it's so hard for relegated teams to go back up. It's always the teams that surprise you, you wouldn't have expected Coventry to win the league last year, would you?

“It's very hard to know, we won't really know what their mindset or morale is, or how they're taking to the manager, because every relegated team has such a hangover.

“There are players during the summer who think, 'I'm a Premier League player, I want to leave,' while the club tries to bring in new players. They have a new manager, too. It's about how you marry all that together and get everyone on the same page.”