Wolves 2025/26 season review: Disastrous campaign ends in relegation

It was a disastrous season filled with issues on and off the pitch, as the club flirted with becoming the worst ever Premier League side.

They avoided that title in the end, but it offers little respite to a fan base that endured a painful campaign, as we sum up 2025/26 in our season review.

Success

Frankly, this will be the shortest and most straightforward section, as there is very little to regard as a success for Wolves.

Boiling this down to one singular point is the fairest way and Mateus Mane’s breakthrough is the biggest positive of the season.

The attacker was given his debut by Vitor Pereira at the end of the previous season, who went on to claim that Mane would do something ‘special’ in the Premier League and that he would be in Wolves’ first team squad.

Pereira then went on to omit Mane from most of his squads and not give him a single minute of first team action.

It was down to interim boss James Collins to bring Mane back into the fold and then current head coach Rob Edwards gave the teenager a proper opportunity, which he took with both hands.

Goals against West Ham and Everton earned Mane plenty of plaudits and despite going through a spell of bad form, he put in some strong displays towards the end of the season and will be integral for Wolves next season.

Failures

Wolves’ failures in 2025/26 start with their recruitment.

As experienced and quality players such as Matheus Cunha, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia departed, six players arrived without any Premier League experience.

Not only that, but most of them were not up to the level required, with only Ladislav Krejci proving himself to any degree.

David Moller Wolfe has quality but was unable to get into the team regularly ahead of Hugo Bueno, while Jhon Arias was sold in January, Fer Lopez went on loan because he was not ready and Tolu Arokodare and Jackson Tchatchoua proved not to be good enough.

That terrible summer was exacerbated by an awful start to the season as Pereira managed two points from 10 games before being sacked, Collins lost his only game as interim, and Edwards then lost his first seven in charge.

That culminated in two points from just 18 matches, marking the worst ever start any English side has ever made in history.

Among that period was Wolves’ longest ever losing streak of 11 matches.

There was some improvement under Edwards, but it was never going to be enough to sustain a proper survival bid and Wolves’ 20 points from 38 games is their lowest tally in the club’s history, beating the 21 points they got from 30 games in 1895/96.

The statistics make for grim reading and aside from a brief spell where Wolves beat Villa and Liverpool, the season was largely a mess from start to finish and goes down as a tremendous failure from top to bottom.

Managers

Wolves employed two managers during the season, with Pereira having pre-season and the start of the campaign and Edwards finishing it.

Pereira was let down by decisions from the top over recruitment, but he also settled for players he was not happy with and turned down other potential options.

Wolves had looked at players like Harry Wilson and David Brooks, for example, who would certainly have improved the squad, but Pereira was not convinced.

The head coach endured a bad start to the season and certain turning points damaged his reputation.

The 3-1 defeat at home to Leeds, when Wolves were 1-0 up, marked five consecutive top flight defeats and that was quickly followed up by back-to-back draws against Spurs and Brighton were Wolves conceded late on both occasions.

Wolves then conceded late at Molineux to lost 3-2 against Burnley and the crowd turned - before Pereira angrily confronted the South Bank.

He had lost the fans and the players and was sacked a week later.

Edwards never got a new manager bounce and was swimming against the tide in trying to got a tune out of a below par squad.

He made Wolves slightly better defensively but also had some poor spells, while some decisions were baffling.

His set-up and tactics at home to Chelsea in February, for example, seemed out of character.

Edwards also got under the skin of some fans with certain comments, with one answer insisting Wolves’ plight is not his fault causing particular anger.

Off the field

It was also a season of change for Wolves off the pitch.

Sporting director Matt Hobbs left the club at the end of the previous campaign and Domenico Teti came in to replace him.

Teti had worked with Pereira previously and it was seen as an opportunity to give the head coach more power, but it was not successful and Teti left shortly after Pereira was sacked.

Despite the mistakes made from many of the individuals mentioned, former chairman Jeff Shi stands alone as the person who should take the majority of the blame.

His terrible decisions over several years consistently weakened the squad and resulted in a dreadful summer of recruitment.

He continued to disrespect the fans with bizarre public comments and was eventually relieved of his duties due to his key role in Wolves’ relegation.

On top of that, Wolves’ lack of leadership in the squad resulted in a weak team with little accountability.

Therefore, it is no surprise to see the dressing room incident between Arokodare and Mane after the West Ham defeat, in which Arokodare was the sole aggressor.

What next?

Edwards is being given the opportunity to rebuild Wolves’ squad and take them into the Championship and there is a lot to do.

Although they have made a good start by getting Andre to sign a new deal and agreeing a contract to sign Kieran Trippier, this squad needs a huge overhaul.

Despite being trusted with the first team, Edwards will be on a short leash and cannot afford a bad start to the campaign, with Wolves desperate to earn promotion back to the top flight at the first time of asking.

New chairman Nathan Shi and sporting director Matt Jackson have the chance to turn Wolves’ fortunes around and should be given the opportunity to make their decisions.

But it is also very clear that they will be judged accordingly and anything close to the disaster J.Shi presided over will not be tolerated.

Getting it right this summer is easier said than done but it could be the difference between a new era of Fosun’s ownership of Wolves, or the club languishing in the Championship for years to come.