Wolves’ Summer Rebuild: Questions Ahead of Championship Season

Wolves head into the new Championship season with numbers on their side, but not necessarily the profile many expected.

On BBC Radio WM, commentator Mike Taylor and former Wolves striker David Kelly picked over the club’s summer transfer business, weighing up whether this reshaped group has the tools – and the know-how – to drag the club straight back to the Premier League.

The headline issue is simple enough: size. Wolves have assembled a large squad, options in almost every position, competition for places all over the pitch. Depth will not be the problem.

But depth is not the same as Championship nous. That is where the debate sharpened.

Taylor questioned whether there is enough second-tier experience in the dressing room to handle the grind of a 46-game campaign and the pressure of a promotion push. The squad, he suggested, looks like one that could go up – but not in the way anyone around Molineux had pictured a few months ago.

“This might be a promotion squad – the only thing that we can say for the moment, is it is not what we were anticipating,” Taylor said. “That doesn't mean it will necessarily be bad. We'll know that in a few weeks, but it is not what we were expecting. It just isn't.”

That sense of surprise hangs over the window. Wolves have not simply doubled down on tried-and-tested Championship stalwarts. They have gone for a different blend, a different route back.

Whether that gamble brings them straight home to the Premier League, or leaves them stuck in the traffic of the play-off pack, will become clear soon enough.