Wolves relegated: Where did it go wrong in 2025/26?

Wolves' relegation to the Championship has now been confirmed after eight seasons of Premier League football.

The team that Nuno Espirito Santo built to get Wolves promoted has been dismantled and decisions on and off the field have seen Wolves spiral towards the bottom of the table.

After years of flirting with relegation, ongoing issues have finally caught up with them and they will play Championship football in 2026/27, ironically being relegated after Nuno’s West Ham picked up a point at Crystal Palace.

There are a number of reasons why it has gone so badly wrong this season and we have attempted to concisely convey the big issues for Wolves in 2025/26.

Recruitment

Wolves spent more than £100million last summer but spent it incredibly badly.

All six players that were signed arrived without a single minute of Premier League experience between them and many of them were not the first choice signings in their positions, after a tumultuous summer.

Of those players, Ladislav Krejci has been the biggest success but was arguably overpriced, while Jhon Arias was sold within months of arriving and Fer Lopez was sent out on loan in January.

These six players, alongside the departures of Matheus Cunha, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia among others, resulted in a weakened and unbalanced team that was not ready to tackle the top flight.

Former chairman Jeff Shi carries a lot of the blame for Wolves' dreadful summer, while former director of professional football Domenico Teti must also share some of it.

Wolves then did some business in January to prepare the squad for the Championship, but the damage was already done by then.

Goalscorers

It was clear throughout pre-season, and when looking at the available players, that the squad is devoid of goalscorers or creativity.

Jorgen Strand Larsen scored 14 Premier League goals last season but relied on Cunha and Ait-Nouri's ingenuity to create chances. Before Larsen's departure a few months ago, he managed just one goal in 22 top flight matches for Wolves as the striker was starved of service.

Arias was a disaster of a signing, while Lopez proved not to be ready for the Premier League and Hwang Hee-chan has never returned to previous, although fleeting, form.

Tolu Arokodare has also largely struggled to make much of an impact.

Wolves were otherwise completely devoid of any attacking quality, and despite some improvement under Rob Edwards, they often struggled for goals despite plenty of change in the squad.

Captaincy

Wolves have lost their captain for the last four summers and once Semedo departed on a free at the end of last season, it was abundantly clear to everyone following Wolves that the squad lacked leadership and direction.

It is no surprise that former sporting director Matt Hobbs attempted an audacious swap deal for former captain Conor Coady on transfer deadline day in February 2025, as he highlighted the ongoing issue in the squad and how Coady would have impacted that.

The powers that be desperately needed to recruit with that in mind and, following Hobbs' exit, should have followed a similar path in their recruitment.

Instead, only Krejci comes close to any form of leader from the players signed, while the current leadership group is not fit for purpose as a whole.

There was no-one to drag Wolves out of their slump, as they continued to lose every week until it was too late and they were cut adrift.

Having the erratic and often unreliable Jose Sa as captain for large parts of Edwards’ tenure so far proves just how far the club has sunk with the dressing room culture.

Managers

For all the faults in the hierarchy, recruitment policy and the squad, the management has to take some responsibility.

Vitor Pereira helped keep Wolves in the division the year before but turned down some potentially good Premier League-proven signings in the summer and then ran the rule over a disjointed team.

He desperately changed formations and personnel in search of an answer but never found one - although it could have been different if Wolves had not conceded late equalisers to Spurs and Brighton as they looked for their first win.

Wolves lost the next three games after that, extending that to four under interim boss James Collins, before Edwards took charge.

The head coach was unable to get any new-manager bounce, despite some performances deserving points, and he lost his first seven in charge, taking the total consecutive losing run to 11 Premier League games.

Edwards has since gone on to make some improvements to the team and ensure they are more competitive, but that losing streak in the middle of the season played a huge part in Wolves' eventual demise.