Wolves pre-season tour diary: Day one arrival ahead of busy week

Day one of the Express & Star’s trip to Portugal to cover Wolves’ pre-season training camp started with an extremely early rise.

The 4am alarm was sobering as I got ready, grabbed my bags and got a swift lift to Birmingham airport expecting long queues at both the Jet2 bag drop and security.

But fortunately they took a combined 45 minutes before I was already walking through duty free and into departures.

I had a quick bite to eat at Popeyes - an unusual but quite good option at 6am - before heading to my gate to board the flight to Faro.

The two hours and 50 minutes in the air went fairly quickly as I dipped in and out of sleep and it was when I landed that I had the first proper success of the trip.

I regularly fly on my Irish passport these days to avoid longer queues and anyone that has been to Faro airport will know it is notorious for long waits at passport control if you are unfortunate enough to land at the same time as several other flights.

But I sped through on my Irish passport before grabbing my bag and heading for the shuttle bus to pick up my hire car, which was a short drive away.

I have always been the passenger on previous pre-season trips but now it was time to hop into the driver’s seat and drive abroad - on the other side of the road - for the first time.

Due to availability, the hire car company upgraded me for free from a humble Fiat Panda to a much nicer Opel Corsa and the fact it is automatic was a big bonus as a navigated the roads and managed to make it to my apartment in one piece.

I am staying on a seaside town on the Algarve, within driving distance to Wolves’ base, and after stocking up on food for the week the evening has been spent getting ahead on work.

Our series of articles looking at Fosun’s 10 years of owning Wolves will continue this week, while during our stay in Portugal we will bring exclusive insight into Cesar Peixoto’s training sessions.

The Express & Star will also bring exclusive interviews, daily videos and this daily tour diary throughout the week as the Wolves players are put through their paces in preparation for life back in the Championship in the 2026/27 season.