Following the news that Nuno Espirito Santo is to leave Wolves, we reflect on his four-year reign at Molineux, the job that he did and why that journey has come to an end
Sunday 23 May 2021 12:54, UK
It is testament to Nuno Espirito Santo's time at Wolves that prior to the announcement of his impending departure there was a mood of deflation at Molineux following a season that currently sees them twelfth in the Premier League table.
Whatever happens against Manchester United on Sunday, this will be the club's third-best finish in over 40 years. It is just that the better ones came in the two seasons that preceded it. Nuno twice took Wolves to seventh, providing moment after memorable moment as the best teams in the land struggled to deal with his side.
There was a double over Manchester City. Magical nights under the Molineux lights as 30,000 cheered on victories over Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and the rest. There was an FA Cup semi-final and a European run that went all the way to the last eight.
Away days in Turin and Istanbul, Braga and Barcelona. This was the life that fans had craved for decades at a club that had been lurking in the third tier of English football as recently as 2014, just three years prior to Nuno's arrival. Chinese owners Fosun changed that.
But it took the appointment of Nuno to do it. That should not be forgotten when assessing his role in Wolves' rise. Walter Zenga was unable to make it work and Paul Lambert fared little better. Jorge Mendes had helped bring in players but not a strategy.
The foundations of the success were built in Nuno's first season, blowing away the division and the idea that it takes time to forge an identity. He did it instantly. The 3-4-3 was established in pre-season, patterns of play soon becoming routine. Results flowed.
Wolves were a machine under Nuno, so organised that Championship performers such as Conor Coady and Matt Doherty not only coped with the step up but flourished. In the Premier League, Raul Jimenez brought goals, Joao Moutinho added class and Adama Traore provided the entertainment.
This was not the swashbuckling style of Leeds United but it carried Wolves higher up the table than any newly-promoted side has managed in a generation. Nuno's team controlled games without the ball, pounced on the counter-attack and could punish any opponent.
When Wolves won their first three games behind closed doors upon football's return in June, the thought occurred that this measured style was ideally suited to the new normal. Victory over Aston Villa had them fifth, three points off third with six games to go.
But an underwhelming end to the campaign preceded a chastening quarter-final defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League in which Wolves had 24.6 per cent of the possession. Nuno was left to reflect on whether his reactive game had reached the limit of its potential.
Out went Doherty alongside the popular Diogo Jota. In came Nelson Semedo and Fabio Silva, a highly-rated prospect who appeared wildly overpriced at £35m. It never looked likely to be enough to justify a change in approach and injuries soon confirmed it.
Wolves had not been brilliant prior to the skull fracture that Jimenez suffered against Arsenal in November. And yet, their 2-1 win that afternoon meant that 10 games into the campaign, Nuno's side ended the month in seventh again, nevertheless. Four points off top.
But the loss of Jimenez, scorer of 27 goals last season, proved insurmountable. Nuno toyed with four at the back in the knowledge that his forwards needed more support to make up the shortfall but that left the previously well protected defence exposed instead.
There was further misfortune when Jonny suffered a recurrence of his cruciate ligament injury, while the absences of Willy Boly and Daniel Podence left Nuno short of options. The small squad that had somehow battled its way through a 383-day season began to creak.
There were missteps too. The decision to rest players for a winnable FA Cup tie against Southampton frustrated supporters and the loan signing of Willian Jose has not worked out.
The regular changes to formation and personnel robbed his team of the key advantages that helped them become the best of the rest - the synergy benefits so evident when they were really flying. Put simply, Wolves no longer really looked like Wolves any more.
Perhaps there should have been more patience given that Nuno was putting his faith in youth. In the recent win over Brighton, five of the starting line-up were born since the year 2000 - more than any other team has picked in total during the Premier League season.
But insipid defeats to Tottenham and Everton since then have underlined the sense that Wolves are a team meandering. The rebuild looks a long one and though Nuno has had time to plan for what comes next, any sense of clear direction has not yet appeared.
The decision to part company renders such discussion moot now. What happens next is a problem for another coach. Nuno can embrace the return of 4,500 supporters for the game against United on Sunday without having to worry about any of that.
The hope is that it becomes a celebration. Nuno felt the absence of the fans inside the stadium more keenly than most, a bond that was strengthened by his extraordinary £250,000 donation to charitable causes in the city during lockdown.
He will enjoy the opportunity to experience just a taste of their enduring admiration one last time, maybe even affording himself another air-punch of delight in front of the South Bank.
Whatever the result at the weekend, he will leave Wolves with a better win percentage than even Stan Cullis, the man whose statue stands outside the opposite end of Molineux.
Needless to say, he will also boast a better win percentage than any other manager since Cullis brought three league titles and two FA Cups to the city between 1949 and 1960.
Nuno did not come close to that but he did restore pride in the pack and elevate Wolves to a level that they will now hope to stay. He surely will, his reputation undoubtedly enhanced through a four-year reign that no Wolves supporters will wish to forget.
