The Mendes-Pereira Gamble: Wolves’ Last Throw of the Dice

For me, the end of Gary O’Neil and the current regime was clear when the announcement came last week that Nelson Semedo would be captain.

The embarrassing skirmishes post-West Ham just pointed to a lack of discipline and respect occurring under O’Neil’s reign on a day-to-day basis behind the scenes.

The fact it happened again post-Ipswich, just five days later, was frankly unforgivable.

All this got me thinking about how it reflects the whole issue with leadership within the club.

I agree with Mario stepping down, and as much as I value Nelson as a footballer, making a player with six months left on his contract (and widely expected to agree terms with another club in the coming months prior to a ‘well-timed’ update about contract talks this week) the club captain midway through a season raises its own questions about squad building and the overall strategy/direction of the club from a footballing point of view.

It appears we may have built a squad lacking in genuine leaders and natural successors. This, along with the unfortunate byproduct of petulance and entitlement, will be one of the biggest immediate challenges for Vitor Pereira to address. You can’t make leaders where there aren’t any—it’s an inherent quality. So, until January at least, he’s just going to have to make do, perhaps leaning heavily on the very few leaders we do have: Tommy Doyle and Craig Dawson, perhaps?

It’s a damning indictment of the squad we have built. Especially when you compare that to lines of succession from times gone by: Coady, Neves, Saiss, Moutinho, Kilman, Boly, Semedo, Jonny, Rui/Ruddy. It’s incomparable, really. Why have we not replaced leaders effectively? 

Is it because they are so hard to come by and we just fell lucky in building those squads? Or is it something deeper? Do we now lack people with sufficient know-how in recruitment? I think it’s a real possibility, and it’s an issue I’ve raised before: who are the ‘football’ people within this hierarchy? The truth is, I don’t think there are any. The tenure of Matt Hobbs effectively running the club has been an abject failure. Which is why it now makes perfect sense to draft Vitor Pereira and Jorge Mendes back into the fold.

But it hasn’t always been this way. We’ve existed in the past with more of a middle ground between ourselves, in terms of an internal network, and Mr Mendes. We’ve gone through the likes of Thelwell, Dalrymple, Nuno, Lage, and Lopetegui in recent years. Regardless of personality or personal feeling, I would argue all of these were well-connected and respected men in the game. We were better for it. That’s why I, for one, am glad to see some genuine football men back in and around the club.

Upon the departures of the aforementioned men, power seems to have become more and more concentrated on Chairman Jeff Shi, a man with little to no credentials in the game. He is propped up by Matt Hobbs, in a sporting director role—a position he rose to quickly, emerging from the scouting department. The next rung of the ladder appeared to be O’Neil, a character who, even his biggest advocates wouldn’t argue, carries much gravitas or experience (especially at management level) in the game.

So, has our leadership problem on the pitch been borne out of our dismantling of it off the pitch? It would certainly appear that way from the outside looking in. Jeff Shi appears to barely be around the club these days, and Matt Hobbs has barely covered himself in glory from either a recruitment point of view or a conduct point of view. His two-game ban for taking it upon himself to verbally abuse a referee following the Manchester City defeat earlier in the season perhaps points to the petulance that has seemingly seeped its way onto the pitch in recent weeks. A sign of over promotion and sycophantism, where faces may fit but job capability is a mere afterthought. 

On Hobbs’ spat- Yes, leaders speak up, call out, and challenge authority—but they tread carefully when they do it. They understand that their every move sets a precedent. Leading by example is the only way to lead. At a deeper level, whether this ‘challenging of authority’ is encouraged or accepted at Wolves feels unlikely. It does not appear, from the outside, to be a place of open dialogue and collaborative thinking, despite -rather ironically- Jeff Shi recently calling on ‘collaboration’ to see the club out of their current tricky period. Maybe it is time the hierarchy practises what they preach.

There are no more rocks to hide under. All Wolves’ chickens appear to be coming home to roost right here, right now. We are rotten, riddled with symptoms that are stacking up, and the case will very soon become terminal (if it isn’t already). The January window will be the final dose of medicine, but it’s a shot we’ve received before (two years ago). Let’s hope it’s a stronger dose than then, because it will need to be. Mendes will help with this, and so will the fact that, for now at least, it appears the self-sustainability model will be shelved.

There is understandable optimism with the arrival of Pereira. Any January arrivals will now surely be under his instruction. He will have a couple of weeks to assess his squad, and Jorge Mendes will be tasked with bringing in the profile of players he needs. This bypassing of the current hierarchy and their lack of footballing astuteness could well be Wolves’ saving grace.

Longer term, however, the club must learn from past mistakes. Back in 2021-2022, there were doubts as to whether those at the helm genuinely knew what was needed. Luckily, Julen Lopetegui swung by to tell them, as well as to help attract the required reinforcements (I think Pereira has a similar pull to enable him to do the same). Like Lopetegui, Pereira’s reputation will offer some reassurance to those coming in that this situation is able to be rectified, that this blip can be weathered, and that, should they join Wolves, they will still be Premier League footballers come the summer. O’Neil wouldn’t have instilled the same confidence in would-be reinforcements, so, regardless of how deep Wolves’ pockets may miraculously become in January, there was always the nauseating possibility that even all the money in the world wouldn’t have saved us this time. This, along with the fact he had clearly lost the respect of the dressing room, was the reason he just had to go.

The inability to attract a top-class manager could well have been the final nail in the coffin for the current regime at Molineux. Yet in Pereira, they have managed to attract a fine alternative. While not considered elite, he has enough gravitas and has done enough in the game to command the respect of that dressing room. He’s won eight career titles and has managed some big-name players. He’s done more in the game than anyone else at Wolves. They should be—and I’d imagine will be—hanging on his every word.

But why would a leader so interested in managing things his own way be willing to enter into an environment where, if nothing changes, he will likely not be able to exercise the very assets that make his leadership so effective? If he is forced to work under anything other than his own remit, then his appointment will be futile.

Concerningly, no matter how good Pereira may or may not be for Wolves, Lopetegui and Nuno’s departures in particular sent a clear message to head coaches up and down the land. The Wolves regime is rigid; it cannot be remoulded, it cannot be changed, no matter how good you are or how much you care. You will answer to Wolves’ tune. That tune is currently whatever the orchestra on the Titanic opted for. Which leaves us with a final question: is there any way this sinking ship can be saved?

Every possible solution looks to be met with obstacles of the club’s own making. It looked (and may still turn out to be) the most painful case of ‘you reap what you sow’ imaginable, and, in years to come, it could well act as a blueprint on exactly what not to do with an established Premier League club. Yet, with Vitor Pereira, we stand a chance, and Fosun stands a chance of a reprieve… again. He must be here with some assurances, but this time they simply cannot be temporary.

Fosun built this era themselves, which makes their potential throwing of it away all the more mindless. In many ways, the hard work in establishing Wolves in the Premier League was done. The money had been spent, and ticking over was simply dependent upon deploying the correct people with the correct know-how in the correct places. It was almost harder to fail.

Money, margins, and envy of other clubs’ operations (such as Brentford and Brighton), who appeared to be ticking by with less outlay, clouded judgement. A sense of self-entitlement lured key figures at the club into a fallacy: ‘What Brentford and Brighton do is easy; we’ll do it too.’

Those clubs are systemic and strategic, open-minded and collaborative, innovative and hardworking, patient and well-informed. Their finances are meticulous, their recruitment immaculate; they sell at the right time and seldom miss when it comes to incomings. This is the result of years of building. It didn’t just happen because they willed it into existence. It’s part of a bigger picture, a vision. First and foremost, that is a footballing vision that will lead to success on the pitch, which will in turn lead to financial stability, retained Premier League status, and all the security and opportunity that comes with such a coveted position.

The Premier League grows inexorably. To not be a part of it for any period could mean missing the next big move up. Then, without you, it has become unattainable.

Clubs like Brighton and Brentford know that their Premier League status is their lifeblood. The Wolves ownership model, on the other hand, has chosen for too long to feed on its own lifeblood, like a parasite to itself—all to fatten wallets, while striving to leave just enough blood circulating to keep the club alive, however moribund, with the faintest, weakest pulse detectable.

Yes, that’s been the strategy up until now—ever since Nuno and Jorge Mendes distanced themselves from the club—which is why I welcome the return of the latter, despite how bizarre it is to have a super-agent effectively running a Premier League club. Right now, until there is a proper internal footballing set-up and hierarchy at the club, it’s our only viable option for survival.

There is still, however, no guarantee it will work this time around. Lopetegui, after all, had a World Cup winter break that effectively acted as a pre-season. Pereira, of course, won’t have that.

If Wolves do somehow survive, it must come with the acceptance of a certain reality amongst the custodians at the club: what you built, you are on the brink of demolishing. Just like the Roman Empire, whose demise was not inevitable, this is the result of choices made by those in power, who prioritised their own interests over the welfare of the empire.

It cannot go on like this. But for now at least- Vitor and Jorge: it’s over to you.