Just when you think Wolverhampton Wanderers are going to be a normal football club, back come Gestifute and Jorge Mendes to remind everyone what they signed up for.
The reaction of thousands of Wolves supporters to Rob
Edwards suddenly being sacked — or indeed neutrals seeing the surprising
news break late on Wednesday night or early on Thursday morning — will have
been a collective: “What? Huh?”
That will have been immediately followed by a click on
Google to search “Cesar Peixoto”. He is considered one of
the most promising coaches in Portuguese football. And he has inspired Gil
Vicente to be able to compete with clubs boasting significantly larger
budgets.
However, his career history is checkered to say the least.
He was sacked after short-term stints at Pacos de Ferreira and Moreirense, and
his 15 months in charge at Gil Vicente is the longest he has lasted at any
club. While guiding them to sixth in the Primeira Liga is a notable
achievement, it’s not exactly unheard of. They finished fifth in 2022, after
all.
Look, this is football and this is what happens when your
owners have a financial commitment which ties them to an agency (Fosun have a
minority stake in Gestifute).
Sure, Edwards hardly had a convincing seven months in
charge. He made some mistakes, he wasn’t universally popular with supporters,
but he engineered some great results against Liverpool, Aston Villa and
Arsenal, and, amid extremely trying circumstances — he took over with Wolves in
the midst of the worst start by any club to any season in the history of
English football
This shock move has the fingerprints of Mendes, Gestifute,
and Fosun boss Guo Guangchang (based in China) all over it, rather than
sporting director Matt Jackson or perhaps even new chairman Nathan Shi.
Everyone remains at the whim of Mendes, Gestifute and Fosun
owner Guangchang, pulling the puppets along on strings. Wolves are not a
serious football club, argues the New York Times. I think that is going a bit far, but they
could do with nee owners who take a more balanced long-term view. Football clubs in general (and fans) need to
get over the idea that everything is down to the coach.
It may all work out. Peixoto may be the new Nuno, Mendes may
deliver a raft of exciting Gestifute signings this summer and Wolves may be
back in the Premier League in a year, asking everyone what were they worried
about.
But right now, just when Wolves supporters who had to endure
the team’s worst season in its 149-year history thought they were getting their
open, transparent, sensibly-run club back, they are heading once more into the
unknown.
Comments
Post a Comment