Radical thinking on manager promises a new Wolves dawn

And now for something completely different.

writes Martin Swain

. A team grown stale under previous management has been in urgent need of fresh direction for some time and Wolves fans will be hoping Messrs Morgan and Moxey have got their calculations right in handing the task to Stale Solbakken.

And now for something completely different.

writes Martin Swain

With the resurrection of the club required, who better than a man who came back from the dead to lead it?

Solbakken works these days with a pacemaker, legacy of a FC Copenhagen training ground collapse 11 years ago from a previously undetected heart problem during which attending medics described him technically dead for several minutes.

This scary moment does not appear to have tempered the former Norwegian international's combative edge. Catapulted into coaching as a result, he established a regular supply of silverware to Copenhagen and while cynics may today suggest it is tougher not to win the Danish title with the nation's best supported club, they would be ignoring other signals of Solbakken's qualities.

He guided Copenhagen to one of the biggest Champions League upsets of all time – the 1-0 defeat of a Manchester United team laced with Ronaldo, Rooney and Solskjaer – and a couple of years ago held Guardiola's Barcelona 1-1 while famously squaring up to the celebrated Spanish coach.

He had his bust-ups, too, in what appears to be an ill-fated venture with a now-relegated Cologne. If there was any suggestion this coach should take his foot off the pedal in the wake of nature's alarm call, you would not know it.

Now it must be conceded Wolves have gone against conventional wisdom in this appointment. English football's massive popularity across Scandinavia means this Danish-based Norwegian will not be taking on the task blind to its requirements.

Nevertheless, the Championship is a many-faced beast, ugly and bruising and arduous when it wants to be and while Solbakken can claim experience of a higher grade of football he is unlikely to have dealt with anything so relentlessly intense.

But having scolded Molineux's policy-shapers because of the bungled manager search last time, Wolves fans can surely support the vision that has led to this first appointment of an overseas coach.

A rot has set in which has not only cost the club its Premier League place but shaken to the core the confidence of a previously intact group of players. One of the disadvantages of Terry Connor's continuation in the lead role was the absence of new, fresh eyes to detect the weaknesses and maybe find previously unseen strengths. The interim manager had been working with the same players for too long to come up with anything other than a different version of a familiar problem.

Solbakken comes right out of the left field. Like his nation's record on human rights and equality legislation, he has a record for progressive thinking which we can but hope gets Wolves moving forward again in a manner more pleasing to the eye and thrilling to the blood.

A big ask. But the field from which Morgan and Moxey were selecting had not changed and was frankly a mite uninspiring, especially with Wolves possibly having to fall in behind a number of other clubs to take their pick of whatever candidates remained.

They should be praised for some radical thinking that yes, will leave some fans nervous but others relishing this new dawn.