“The quality that we have, you see it every day in training,” said Adam Armstrong after Monday’s draw at Brentford. “I couldn’t quite believe the position in the table.”
Armstrong joined Wolves on deadline day, at which point they were 18 points from safety with 14 games left to play. Halfway through those matches, the deficit has been trimmed to 12. It is not enough progress to make the prospect of somehow tunnelling out of the relegation zone seem any less fanciful.
His observations are, however, a useful indicator of progress. Whether this Wolves squad was ever properly equipped for this season is now moot. But we can now say that, even after selling three players for more than £80m mid-season, they look like a team that believe they can compete at this level.
Armstrong agrees. “You see it in the second halves of games,” he said. “You see the lads sticking together. The fans are right behind us. It gives us that extra push. We could hear them all game, especially in the second half when were pushing for another goal. We have to take the positives to go on to the next one.”
It was possible to see Armstrong’s signing on 2 February as the start of Wolves’ 2026-27 season, bringing in for reasonable cost a player proven to meet the very specific demands of the Championship. But there is more to preparing for an expected relegation than just scouting and signing players.
Few clubs have ever had so long to brace themselves for impact as Wolves in recent months, but we can now see that rather than writing off the remainder of this campaign and just waiting it out, positive vibes are being generated by successive performances.
That matters, even if at least some of the players generating them will be playing somewhere else by the time next season begins. The supporters feeling those vibes, at Molineux and on the road, will not have moved, and Wolves will need them.
Supporting a football club does not stop and start with new seasons. Feelings, good and bad, linger. Wolves’ likely relegation is not a one-season story. The contributing factors have come together over time, and the same will be true of any future promotion back to the Premier League.
If the objective of ensuring Wolves are a Premier League club on 1 August 2027 is met, on that date we will reflect that the successful campaign to achieve it started before now.
Tune into The West Midlands Football Phone-In from 18:00 on weeknights
Explore Wolves content on BBC Sounds