This wasn't the transfer window Wolves planned or promised - it has to work

Rather than revamp the playing squad, the biggest shake-up occurred in the dugout.

Out went Rob Edwards and in came Cesar Peixoto, to take charge of a group which, barring a few additions, is largely the same as the one relegated from the Premier League with a whimper.

It’s not quite a case of you got us into this mess, now get us out of it. But it’s close.

At some point, there will probably be an attempt by Matt Jackson or Nathan Shi to explain how a transfer window in which Wolves, armed with parachute payments, were supposed to be “competitive” in the market, ended with them spending less on new players than Albion.

They might also tell us how a summer for which they had months to plan, finished in the way they always seem to, with a scramble for players in the final hours while the futures of several key players still hung in the air.

“Unacceptable” was how Shi described the lateness of Wolves’ previous business at May’s increasingly infamous fans forum. And yet, here we are again.

But then it is debatable just how much what Jackson and Shi say really matters. If we learned nothing else this summer, it is where the power at Wolves truly lies and it isn’t at Molineux.

The technical director and executive chairman could well be master strategists but none of it matters a jot when the big Fosun boss in China decides to change tack.

You don’t have to look too hard to spot this summer’s turning point. Prior to Edwards’ departure, you could believe the bold words of May were about to be backed by action.

Wolves’ first two signings, Kieran Trippier and Raul Jimenez, were statements of intent.

Since Peixoto took charge there have been six more, two of them back-up goalkeepers, one of them a teenage striker who has played fewer than 20 senior minutes and another of them a free agent left-back, signed after the deadline. The £7.7million spent on Rafiki Said, who sustained an injury on his first serious appearance, was the only serious outlay.

These weren’t exactly deals to get the blood pumping. Peixoto, who made clear his wish to recruit a striker and a right-sided winger in the final days, only got one of them.

That doesn’t automatically mean it was a bad window. Though Wolves might have made fewer signings than anticipated, they also retained several players who many presumed would leave. The size of the squad - and most importantly the wage bill - goes a long way to explaining the static nature of the club’s business.

Much may depend now on the mindsets of men like Ladislav Krejci and Santiago Bueno, two players who could make a significant difference if they are able to refocus having failed to secure desired exits.

Should Fer Lopez continue his promising start and Mateus Mane develop as hoped, this is not a group without quality.

The concern will be how much the mental scars of last season remain. A team which won just seven times in total the previous year will now, by conservative estimation, need to win at least half of their 46 league matches if the goal of automatic promotion is to be achieved. How they deal with their first run of poor results - an inevitability in a marathon campaign - will be telling.

Peixoto is the key to it all. The Portuguese and his staff are the cultural refresh. It is they who have been appointed in the hope they can create a winning team from a group where Edwards and Vitor Pereira failed.

Supporters, meanwhile, are being asked to have faith in players who have so far given them little reason to do so and in an ownership with now a lengthy track record of failing to deliver on a promise.

No-one will ever believe this was the original plan but it still might work. It has to work.