Will this Wolves side ultimately be remembered as the poorest team the Premier League has ever seen? What began as a familiar relegation struggle has rapidly evolved into something far more alarming, a season that threatens to etch Wolverhampton Wanderers into English football folklore for all the wrong reasons. Sixteen matches into the campaign, Wolves remain without a single victory, have collected only two points, and are drifting dangerously close to surpassing Derby County’s infamous 2007–08 season as the benchmark for failure in the modern era.
This is no ordinary case of a struggling team heading toward relegation. It feels closer to a slow-moving catastrophe. Wolves are no longer simply fighting to stay up; they are scrambling to avoid becoming the Premier League’s ultimate warning story, a club whose decline unfolded in plain sight.
The statistics already paint a bleak picture. Wolves are now the first team in Premier League history to begin consecutive seasons with runs of 10 or more matches without a win. The threat of further humiliation looms large. If they fail to overcome Brentford this weekend, they will match Sheffield United’s unwanted record of a 17-game winless start, set during the 2020–21 season.
Zooming out only deepens the concern. Wolves’ return of roughly 0.13 points per game puts them on track to finish the season with fewer than five points. Such a tally would not just undercut Derby’s notorious 11-point campaign but fail to reach even half of that total. For context, Derby had already accumulated six points by this stage of their disastrous season. Wolves, by contrast, appear to be slipping into territory that once seemed unimaginable.
This collapse feels especially jarring given the club’s recent history. Wolves were not long ago held up as a model of smart recruitment and steady progress. Promotion via the Championship title in 2017–18 sparked a renaissance. The club reached an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley in 2019, advanced to the Europa League quarter-finals in 2020, and enjoyed eight consecutive seasons in the top flight, their longest spell there since the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Back-to-back seventh-place finishes in 2018–19 and 2019–20 encouraged optimism. Some supporters even allowed themselves to dream of reviving echoes of the Stan Cullis era. Under Nuno Espírito Santo, Wolves had a recognisable identity: disciplined without being dull, structured yet expressive.
That side had flair and purpose. Adama Traoré was unleashed down the right, encouraged to terrorise defenders with raw pace. Diogo Jota drifted intelligently from the left, while Rúben Neves, Leander Dendoncker and João Moutinho controlled the midfield rhythm. At the heart of it all was Raúl Jiménez, whose 61 goals and assists across those two seasons gave Wolves a cutting edge. Compared to today’s output, that era feels like ancient history.
Molineux once buzzed with goals, confidence and Portuguese influence. Now, frustration hangs heavy in the air. Even Wolves’ manager struggles to hide his dismay. “I’d be angry if I were a Wolves supporter,” Rob Edwards admitted after their 15th defeat of the season, a 4-1 loss to Manchester United. Fans who staged a 15-minute protest against the club’s ownership outside the stadium might have spared themselves the pain by staying away altogether. Inside, Wolves delivered another performance that mirrored their season: toothless in attack, shapeless in midfield and alarmingly fragile at the back.
The decline did not happen overnight. Over the past five years, Wolves have gradually slid into mid-table anonymity before tipping into genuine danger. League finishes of 13th, 10th, 13th, 14th and 16th dulled the optimism that once surrounded the club. Relegation battles became routine, managers came and went, and any player who showed genuine promise was swiftly sold. By the time this season began, the sense of inevitability was hard to ignore.
At the heart of the issue lies the systematic dismantling of the team’s core. Raúl Jiménez, Rúben Neves, Adama Traoré, Pedro Neto, Matheus Nunes, Max Kilman, Conor Coady and João Moutinho all departed, each exit stripping away leadership, creativity or reliability. One by one, the pillars of Wolves’ success were removed, with little evidence of a coherent long-term plan to replace them.
The summer departures of Rayan Aït-Nouri and Matheus Cunha may have delivered the decisive blow. Together, they contributed directly to 32 of Wolves’ 54 league goals last season and ranked among the league’s strongest performers for take-ons, progressive carries and goal-creating actions. Their absence has left Wolves near the bottom of the Premier League in virtually every creative metric.
Their replacements arrived with potential but little top-flight experience. Fer López, Tolu Arokodare and Jhon Arias were handed responsibility that might have overwhelmed even seasoned professionals. Predictably, the transition has been painful. Arias remains without a goal or assist in 15 appearances. Arokodare looks a shadow of the striker who netted 21 times in Belgium last season. López, signed for £19m, is already being linked with a loan move back to Celta Vigo. Wolves chose promise over proven quality, and the gamble failed.
The consequences are stark. Wolves have scored just nine league goals and became the first team since Leicester City in 1977–78 to reach December without a single player scoring more than once. Even Jørgen Strand Larsen, once valued at £50m by Newcastle, has managed only one goal in 14 outings.
Yet amid the wreckage, faint signs of resistance remain. The 2-1 defeat at Arsenal last weekend offered a strange sense of encouragement. Losing after scoring two own goals, including one in the dying seconds, was cruel, but Wolves were seconds away from becoming only the second visiting team to take a point at the Emirates this season. The performance showed structure, discipline and defensive resilience.
Most importantly, Wolves showed they still care. They have not surrendered to despair. As former Derby striker Robert Earnshaw warned, reflecting on his own relegation experience: “You can relegate yourself based on how you think. It was almost as if everyone gave up. It was 20 games to go and it was like: ‘We’re never going to do it.’” Edwards will cling to that lesson, hoping belief can prevent Wolves from writing their name into Premier League history for all the wrong reasons.
