Wolves v Brighton: The Old Gold view with Wolves Blog

Wolverhampton Wanderers have endured their most challenging season since returning to the Premier League in 2018 and as Wolves Blog are ready to acknowledge, it may not get any better when Brighton rock up at Molineux.

The Albion are very much Wolves’ bogey teams with neither set of supporters able to understand why. Since Brighton were founded in 1901, the Old Gold have finished above the Seagulls in nearly 90% of the seasons played and yet Brighton have suffered only two league losses at the hands of Wolves.

Even when Wolves had a glorious chance to improve that barren run back in January, they somehow blew it. Nuno’s men were 3-1 up at half time at the Amex and in complete command, only for Brighton to launch a famous comeback to draw 3-3.

It was the turning point for the Albion in a season which, up until that point, had represented Brighton’s worst ever start to a top flight campaign.

What happened that evening, Wolves’ disappointing season overall and whether Nuno will be able to turn down Spurs if Daniel Levy comes calling are all on the agenda as we spoke to Tom Baugh from Wolves Blog ahead of the Albion’s trip to the West Midlands.

Nuno – and Graham Potter – have been linked with the Spurs job. Is there any danger that he might fancy taking charge at Tottenham?
Possibly. It has been a difficult season for him both personally – Covid kept him from seeing his family back in Portugal – and professionally with Wolves struggling to meet expectations.

Whether we like it or not, Spurs would also be seen as a step up, so if offered the chance I’m sure it would be worth consideration. If it is a change of style Spurs want though, I’m not sure he’s enough of a departure from Jose Mourinho to appease their fans.

Wolves are currently on course to finish outside the top 10 for the first time since your return to the Premier League. How would you view this season and why haven’t you hit your normal heights?
It has been a big disappointment. I can count good performances on one hand and I think we are fortunate not to have been closer to the bottom three.

We sold two of our best players in Diogo Jota and Matt Doherty and have been without the likes of Jonny, Willy Boly, Pedro Neto and, most painfully, Raul Jimenez for large chunks of the season. As a consequence, the team simply is not as good as the previous years.

Who have been Wolves’ best players in the 2020-21 season. Any disappointments?
Neto has been the most important player because he got some valuable goals and assists at a time when not many others were producing.

Others like Adama Traore, Ruben Neves and Romain Saiss have chipped in with performances and goals to keep us safe, but I think everyone has been under par.

None of the summer signings have really lived up to expectations or been consistently good enough and that’s been a big disappointment.

What do Wolves need to do this summer to challenge for European football again?
The same as everyone else – buy better players. We invested heavily in youth last summer and maybe that will pay dividends in the years to come, but we need more players for the here and now.

The entire spine of the team needs strengthening. If we can get three or four decent additions, as well as some of the walking wounded back on the pitch, maybe we can think about the top half of the table again.

Last time we met was that crazy 3-3 draw at the Amex. What did you make of the game that evening?
I was gutted by Brighton 3-3 Wolves. At half time, the game looked dead and buried. We were playing some good stuff, up by two goals and Traore was having a great time.

We did everything wrong in the second half, including giving a goal away right after the restart. You could see the equaliser was coming a long time before it arrived and we were fortunate to hang on by the end, even though we missed a sitter right on the full time whistle to win it ourselves. The curse of Brighton goes on.

You must be pretty happy with your owners given how far you have risen in the past five years or so. What do you think about the 50+1 rule making its way into the English game?
I think it is a big positive if it can be pushed through because it will safeguard against rich owners destroying the game. I am dubious it will happen though.

Finally, what is the Wolves Blog prediction for Wolves v Brighton?
Even though you are not mathematically safe, you are not going down so it is a dead rubber. But I think you will want to finish the job yourselves and will probably get the win.

Nuno is experimenting with young players now – out of necessity with so many injuries – and despite a decent performance against West Brom last time out, I would expect you to come out on top in a tight game. Maybe 2-1.

Football is weird though, so maybe the one time I don’t have a strong feeling we will finally get a home win against Brighton will be the moment we finally do it.

Thanks to Tom for answering our questions. You can read his work over on Wolves Blog and follow him on Twitter to see what he makes of things should Brighton maintain their excellent record over the Old Gold.