Welcome back to Wolves. Can we finally break into the top half of the Premier League, or will it be a fourth consecutive 11th placed finished? Read on and find out!
If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. For more regular updates and other FM chat, why not join the FM Slack group and follow my #fm_athlete channel? It's free to join and you'll be warmly welcomed by other FMers too!
Pre-season
In the previous chapter, I had declared that the ceiling we we were trying to break through was in fact made from concrete, as opposed to the standard design of "glass". For three consecutive season's we've finished in 11th, never managing to break into the top half despite strengthening the squad in all areas and bringing in some young stars for the future.
As we kick off another season at Molineux, I'll be aiming once again to climb into the top half of the table and embed the foundations needed to eventually reach the upper echelons of European football.
The squad's looking in great shape, but there are one or two areas left to strengthen, primarily on the left hand side of the pitch.
Wolves 2031/32 - Transfers In
Both our left backs, Josko Gvardiol and Samuel Antwi have decided they'd like to leave the club with Gvardiol headed to Celtic for a meagre £6.25M and Antwi going to league rivals Leicester for £24M. In their place I've signed 29yo Chilean full back Camilo Zamora from Chelsea for £26M and promising youngster, Sascha Schawinski from Feirense for £1M. We also have academy starlet Ryan Hilton in the U23s so one of these will head out on loan, and the other act as Zamora's backup.
Wolves 2031/32 - Camilo Zamora's attributes
For the AML slot, I opted not to give Diogo Jota, who's been at the club since 2017, a new contract. This was a tough decision, but i think necessary if we are to strengthen the squad properly. I also decided to sell Jota's backup, Jose Pascual for £21.5M, who despite being a good player, I think needed to be upgraded. In their place comes 22yo Vincenzo Cortese for £50M and 30yo Antonio Marin for 22M.
Wolves 2031/32 - Antonio Marin's attributes
My final signing wasn't planned, but at the last minute i decided to bring in a new goal keeper. I'd been pleased with Guittierez who we had signed last season, but the opportunity arose for a much better keeper to come in, so we took it. Enter 24yo Italian maestro Carmine Vignes, signing from Everton for £62M.
Wolves 2031/32 - Carmine Vignes attributes
As you can tell, i spent a lot of money in this window, all our money in fact, but hopefully our tactic of less signings of higher quality will pay off!
Performances
After winning all 6 of our preseason friendlies we kicked off the league with an Away tie to Southampton. Although we were less than spectacular, we secured the 1-0 win comfortably and then headed into the next game against West Ham where we picked up another 1-0 win.
We then made it three from three making this our best start to a season as we beat Burnley 3-1. A blip in the next game against newly promoted Stoke saw us head into the 2nd Round of the Carabao Cup with low confidence against Everton. We lost to the better side on the day and the League Cup run was overin a flash.
Rounding off August, we were back to winning ways with a 1-0 defeat of Newcastle and we were sat comfortably in the European places with just one loss and 4 wins to our name.
September dished us up fixtures at home to Manchester City and Manchester United, before an away tie against Liverpool. Not the easiest run of games and City proved too much for us in the first one, beating us 2-0 on our own turf. We responded magnificently in the next game against United, winning 2-1, before Liverpool exerted their superiority on us, winning 3-1.
This seemed to be the catalyst for a poor run of form through October and November. Two wins against Huddersfield and Fulham were supplemented by a 0-0 draw with Everton, and the other 3 games all down as losses.
Come December we were still keeping pace with some of the big boys, but had slipped to 10th and were in need of some consistency. We had 6 fixtures in one month, with the final two games against Chelsea and Arsenal, and we didn't disappoint. A 100% win record, three clean sheets, 10 goals scored and 4 conceded were not quite enough to win me Manage of the Month though, I've no idea why not!
Wolves 2031/32 - Results from first half of the season
As the January Transfer Window opened, we chose not to bring anyone in but we did move on two players. Maxence Caqueret wasn't getting the game time he wanted and so went to Slavia Prague, while our reserve DC, Nikola Pertkovic was sold to Olympique Marseille for £10M.
Wolves 2031/32 - Transfers Out (January)
In terms of performances on the pitch, we continued our unbeaten streak with a 0-0 draw away at West Ham. Next up was a tricky Third Round FA Cup tie at home to Chelsea. Having beaten on their patch just over a week ago in the league, we were brimming with confidence and dispatched them 3-0 to set up a 4th Round tie at home to Arsenal. Before that, we stayed unbeaten and kept our clean sheet run going too, having now not conceded since Boxing Day.
If our win against Chelsea was down to high confidence, it was positively soaring against Arsenal, smashing them 4-0 to set up another home tie, this time against Huddersfield in February. A loss against Man City was humbling, but we quickly recovered to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford in the next game.
Huddersfield proved to be a worthy adversary, taking us to Extra Time where a 118th winner was required to get us into the Quarter Finals where we'd play Stoke City. Prior to that game, we secured a Merseyside double win as we beat Liverpool and Everton within 4 days, before Brighton proved why they've become a bogey team for us, beating us 2-1 at Molineux. Despite the loss to Stoke in the league earlier in the season, we were dominant against them in the cup, and booked our place at Wembley for the FA Cup Semi-final where our opponents would be Liverpool.
Another win and a loss in the league before the trip down to London where we hoped our great run would continue. An early goal on 3 minutes was instantly cancelled out as they equalised int he 4th. An even game went one sided though as they struck again after half time and continued to lead as we headed to full time. We tried everything, but our master stroke proved to be Vincenzo Cortese who netted the equaliser on 88 minutes and kept us hanging on by the skin of our teeth!
Wolves 2031/32 - FA Cup Semi-Final result
Our hopes of dragging it out to penalties were swiftly dashed though, no sooner had we started to dream again than they cruelly score again in the 91st minute. They would go on to win the competition, while we crashed out, so close yet so far.
Back to reality in the league, and our recent run of form had seen us reach 4th place and stay there. With 6 games remaining we had to hold our nerve if we were to prove that we belonged among the top teams.
Wins against Reading and Leicester sandwiched draws against Watford and Norwich and took us into the final two games of the season, still in 4th and with all the power in our hands. These results were also enough to see us guarantee a place in the Europa League next year as a minimum.
Just like our final two games of December, our last two games of the season were the reverse fixtures against fellow 4th place challengers Arsenal and Chelsea. We needed to match or better their results in order to clinch 4th place and that much coveted Champions League place.
First up, a battering at the hands of Arsenal as they ran out 2-0 winners and heaped the pressure on us for the last game of the season. Chelsea now couldn't make 4th, but Arsenal could. We had to match or better their result in order to keep hold of 4th, and we were confident, having already beaten Chelsea twice now and with this tie at the Molineux fortress.
We were in for a rude awakening. A shocking performance from us practically gifted them the points and since Arsenal won their game as well, we dropped down one place to 5th for the first time in 21 games.
Wolves 2031/32 - Results from second half of the season
It seems daft to be disappointed. Having spent three seasons consistently in the bottom half, to reach 5th is incredible, but it does feel bittersweet to have bottled Champions League football so easily.
Wolves 2031/32 - Final table
Season Review
It's been a sensational season for us. I consider the concrete ceiling well and truly smashed! An impressive FA Cup run to the Semi-Final, a 5th placed finish, a guarantee of Europa League football and plenty of optimism for this young team in the future.
We also spent more than half our season in 4th place, and i was pleased to see we used 24 of our 25 players in the squad - the only player unused was our third choice keeper.
Wolves 2031/32 - Season Review
In terms of player awards, our new AML, Antonio Marin, stole the show, winning Fans Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Signing of the Season (obviously).
Perhaps the most pleasing award though, was for Young Player of the Season which went to academy graduate Justin Vernon, who broke into the first team and hasn't looked back since.
As for the Player Stats, Antonio Marin also earned Top Goalscorer with 15 goals, not to mention Highest Average Rating, Most Assists (8) and Most Player of the Match Awards.
Gaggiotti ended the season with the best pass completion ratio, proof that he suits the Deep Lying Play-maker role very well.
And that isn't where the accolades ended either, as I also won an award for my efforts, taking the Manager of the Year Award for the first time in the Premier League, and for the second time in my career.
Wolves 2031/32 - Manager of the Year Awards
Next Season Aims
I'm not planning significant changes to the squad as i believe with the players another year older and wiser, we have enough in us to keep challenging. I'm looking forward to the Europa League and will aim to get out of the group, and in the league we'll try and keep our foot on the pedal. I don't think replicating this season's finish is realistic, but i think top 8 is a minimum requirement. Check back next time to find out how we get on.
Thanks for reading the blog, i hope you enjoyed this update. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates throughout the season.