Fan column: Football is a results game and Wolves are running out of time

If only the solution to our mounting decline was that simple. 

Fosun won’t be going anywhere in a hurry and that may be bitterly frustrating but it’s the stark reality. The response of the owners is to extend the contract of the current Head coach in much the same way as they supported the previous incumbent. 

Their approach can be interpreted in different ways; the club’s stance no doubt being that their resolute actions represent stability and continuity with irreversible confidence in Pereira. Others might construe the policy as a misguided repeat of a previous outlandish decision. 

Last season, their four-year extension for Gary O’Neil lasted four months before his dismissal. This suggests that if the current doom-loop inflicting the club continues, similar summary action will be taken. 

O’Neil initially exceeded all reasonable expectations; his early television tactical seminar saw him described as a young, transforming English coach destined for greatness. He saw out his first season still in credit but the latter performances were dire and amidst increasing levels of confusion, new contract or not, his position was rendered untenable. 

The parallels with Pereira are evident. He too exceeded our anticipations, sold his personality to the supporters and finished the campaign unassailable. But like O’Neil, he oversaw a dismal finish that he too has been unable to redress. 

O’Neil insisted that he could retrieve the downward slope and Pereira is currently echoing similar sentiments. O’Neil ran out of time and the question now is how long is Pereira being granted to buck a deteriorating spiral of failure that appears inexorable. 

Cliché it is, but football is indispensably a results game; coaches in the firing line understand this inevitability better than anyone. Owners don’t carry the can coaches do and right now the Wolves’ coach is in a precarious position. 

The ‘sold the team’ element of the South Bank lament can’t be blamed on Pereira and many supporters acknowledge this fact. But the same fans still see Pereira as increasingly culpable regarding selection, approach and tactics. 

No reputation diminishes more quickly than that of the football coach deemed to have lost the plot. Remaining calm with a sense of perspective is admirable but this almighty rut cannot continue much longer.