Leeds, Burnley and Sheffield United supporters contemplating what life might be like back in the Premier League will look upon the risible points tallies of this year’s promoted clubs with quiet alarm.
The under-performance of three clubs who in 2023/24 had looked bold, coherent, and tangibly better than the last lot (who also all went straight back down) is concerning.
But even more so is the sudden rise of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
To Premier League viewers, Wolves’ revival under Vitor Pereira is one of the feel-good stories of the season. To supporters of Championship clubs they are an ominous sign of the wealth of the established Premier League sides and a bitter pill to swallow.
When Pereira was appointed, Wolves had nine points from 17 matches and looked destined to be caught in a four-team slog for survival.
They’ve since won 29 points, the same number as Aston Villa in that time and fewer than only Manchester City, Newcastle, Arsenal and Liverpool.
It isn’t just the scale of Pereira’s revival that worries those seeking promotion. It’s the simplicity behind what he’s done.
Pereira, endearing himself to supporters with late-night pub sessions following his famous “points then pints” philosophy, has transformed Wolves by simplifying the tactics.
He put round pegs in round holes, doing away with Gary O’Neil’s galaxy-brain stuff and implementing a consistent strategy the players could get behind.
Wolves tried five distinct formations in 17 games this season under O’Neil, never using the same one more than six times. Pereira has used the classic Wolves 3-4-2-1 in every single Premier League game he’s managed.
There have been important tweaks of course – Pereira has reportedly used long one-to-one sessions to improve morale and confidence, and has considerably strengthened the defence by signing Emmanuel Agbadou and moving Matt Doherty into the back three – but by and large Wolves have simply progressed to the mean.
Here we have supposedly one of the worst teams in the division remodelled overnight by a disarmingly uncomplicated approach to management, and doing so often without Matheus Cunha, an elite player whom Wolves signed for £40 million from Atletico Madrid.
And as self-belief came back, Wolves have begun to look like a serious team, moving the ball with confidence and purpose: they’ve gone from 1.4 build-up attacks and 2.1 direct attacks per 90 under O’Neil to 2.1 build-up attacks and 1.3 direct attacks under Pereira, essentially flipping the two numbers.
Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton didn’t stand a chance. The next set probably don’t either.
There is a very real possibility that the 17th-best team in the country this season will be Manchester United or Tottenham.
If it isn’t, then it will be either Everton – also revamped by David Moyes with very minor changes, and about to move into a sparkling 53,000-seater stadium – or West Ham, with a new top-level manager and money to spend.
Wolves had only won two of their 16 matches before Vitor Pereira arrived 😬
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 21, 2025
On Sunday they confirmed their safety by beating Man Utd at Old Trafford, a club-record fifth win in a row 👏
From five points behind 17th to 17 clear. What a turnaround! 🔄 pic.twitter.com/JBjX13lJGF
That’s the new standard in a Premier League that over the last few years has successfully funnelled its ballooning wealth into recruitment, scouting, analysis, and – above all – attracting the best coaches.
Pereira, after all, has won back-to-back league titles with Porto and further championships in Greece and China; he leant on vast experience and expertise in turning things around at Molineux.
Any newcomers seeking to compete need to spend huge sums of money and then attract one of Europe’s top coaches, a sequence of incremental steps that will necessarily take a couple of years at least.
There used to be a pathway here: eke over the line with defensive football for a year or two while quietly working on the long-term plan, as Brighton, Bournemouth, and (in a more haphazard and spendthrift way) Nottingham Forest have done.
But those treading-water years are a thing of the past. The time just isn’t there, dooming anyone who tries to catch up.
Wolves are pretty much good enough for a Conference League place yet they could still be the fourth-worst team in the division. Next year half of the league could be raking in money from European competitions.
The gap is only growing wider.
For many years we feared the top four or five would break away and become untouchable. So worried were we by that prospect, we failed to notice something just as serious happening at the other end.
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