With 4 days to go til the start of the season, I thought it was time for me to look back at an eventful pre-season for Wolves.  With one manager unexpectedly resigning, and another coming in with only two weeks until the first game of the season, how have Wolves fared, and what kind of shape are they looking in for the new season?

Ok, the first question, how have they done?  Results have been as follows:

Away vs. Hednesford Town 4-0 win
Away vs. Telford United 0-0 draw
Away vs. Burton Albion 0-1 loss
Away vs. Tranmere Rovers 2-2 draw
Away vs. Swansea City 1-1 draw
Away vs. Crewe Alexandra 2-0 win
Home vs. Aston Villa 0-3 loss

Not competitive games, but not inspiring!  So how are we going to do in the coming season.  The most obvious point of note is the extreme thinness of the squad.  Let’s take a look at all the ins and outs:

   

This doesn’t look good on the face of it.  So, who’s left in the squad?

1   Michael Oakes
2   Mark Clyde
3   Lee Naylor
4   Seyi Olofinjana
5   Gary Breen
6   Jody Craddock
7   Jackie McNamara
9   Carl Cort
12  Rob Edwards
15  Denes Rosa
16  Mark Davies
17  Leon Clarke
20  Matt Murray
21  Tomasz Frankowski
22  Lewis Gobern
23  Keith Lowe
24  Gabor Gyepes
25  Daniel Jones
26  Mark Little
28  Rohan Ricketts
29  Kevin O’Connor
30  Carl Ikeme
31  Wayne Hennessey
33  Martin Riley
34  Stephen Gleeson
37  Chris Cornes
      Jay Boothroyd

With eight of last season’s regulars leaving, by my calculation, 17 of those remaining have any first team experience above one game or so.  Almost exactly enough players to play the game an fill the bench, but not enough to allow for injuries or to adequately cover all positions (especially not if we’re going to aim for quality rather than simply bodies on the pitch!).  It seems that some of the ex-academy youngsters have shown some promise, but they’re mainly going to need to learn and build up experience slowly.  I still hope that a couple more players will bolster the squad, and that against the odds, Wolves will be able to make things click, and challenge for promotion, but the odds look to be on the side of a year to rebuild.  Still, who want’s to think like that – my money’s going on a finish in fifth and a sunny victory in Wembley in May.