Vitor Pereira is very good at getting a lot from a little.

Since the Portuguese head coach took over a Wolves side that was flailing under Gary O'Neill, they achieved the 12th most points in the league despite ranking 15th for shots on target per game, 16th for expected goals and 17 goals conceded. By all metrics, Wolves were a team who were bad but not bad enough to go down.

And how have they utilised the transfer window to ensure that they’re not in a similar place next season? By selling their two best players. Cunha and Ait-Nouri together made up nearly 60% of Wolves’ total goals scored across the Premier League 24/25 campaign. That’s a lot of goals that are no longer going to be in that Wolves squad. With the prem proving harder and harder to stay up in as each season passes by, having to sell your two star players from the season prior will make it just that much more difficult.

Wolves fans will point to the fact that they fared pretty well when Cunha was suspended for 4 games and although they remained unbeaten over these fixtures, they were against Everton, Southampton, West Ham and Ipswich. The Brazilian’s time out just happened to coincide with the exact run of fixtures where Wolves played the teams in the league that were as bad or worse than them. And although I’m not using this as a stick to beat the Midlands side with, I don’t think the ‘we’ll barely miss Cunha because we were fine without him last season’ thought process is fair. Credit to Pereira and the Wolves squad for managing to still grab points when their star man was out, but let’s not act like they were just as good without him. They played bad teams and so it was easier to get the results.

If you look at how the goals were shared around the team, behind Strand Larsen with 14, the most goals in the league from any current player were courtesy of Joao Gomes and Pablo Sarabia with 3. If you have only one player with more than 5 goals scored in the prem, you’ll probably get relegated. So who have Wolves entrusted to carry the burden left by Cunha and Ait-Nouri?

Fer Lopez and Jhon Arias were signed from Spain and Brazil respectively for a combined fee reaching around €40 million. Both attacking players who will likely play in the two behind Strand Larsen, they’ve been brought in to add more dynamism and creativity to the Wolves forward line. They’re powerful runners who are able to manufacture shots for themselves but the question remains over whether they’ll be able to match the output of the man they’ve been brought in to replace.

Thankfully, Wolves have proved to be very good at replacing their best players. Pedro Neto, Ruben Neves, Max Kilman, Joao Mutinho, Matheus Nunes and Digo Jota all graced the Molineux and were sold for big money. Wolves have managed to stay afloat with shrewd and smart signings taking their place but there’s no denying that over time they’ve slowly slid down the table. Once a team battling for European places, they now find themselves often battling relegation and so there is a real question about if the constant outgoings of their most talented players is actually sustainable in the long term for Wolves.

If Lopez and Arias don’t hit the ground running, I don’t see where the goals are coming from with the exception of Strand Larsen. Munetsi, Bellegarde and Hwang, although prem level players, can’t be trusted to score goals consistently and so there’s a lot of pressure on these two new signings to perform.

Away from the attacking side of things, Wolves fans must be pleased that their midfield duo of Andre and Joao Gomes look like they aren’t going anywhere. 2 of the most talented midfielders outside of the top 6, they provide a physicality and defensive nous that makes them a tough match-up for any Premier League side. A big season from both of them and Wolves will be in a much better place to stay up this season. They’ve got legs and can even contribute with goals. Rest assured Pereira will most certainly be building the side around the two Brazilians. However, I fear that one injury to either of them will leave Wolves pretty light in the central areas and so another signing in midfield to back them up would definitely be beneficial.

Defensively, Wolves will be boosted by the return of the talented Yerson Mosquera who’s coming back from a knee injury that ruled him out for the majority of the 24/25 campaign. With Mosquera, there’s a more than capable back three there alongside Toti Gomes and the underrated Emmanuel Agbadou. The addition of David Wolfe as the Ait-Nouri replacement will be interesting and he’s got a tough job to measure up to the levels that were set by the Algerian. Still though, there’s still an argument that Wolves are still light in the centre-back areas and given they’re a team who ranked poorly in the Premier League for goals and shots conceded, another signing at the back is imperative.

Wolves have been relatively busy in the transfer market but there’s still holes in the squad. As I said earlier, Vitor Pereira is an underrated manager who turned a very poor Wolves side into a competent one but with the loss of his two most talented players, he’s got a big ask on his hands to keep them in the league.

It’s not a bad squad but it’s fairly thin and it will rely a lot on the new signings who may or may not adapt well to life in England. If Lopez, Wolfe and Arias can get 20 or so goals between them then Wolves will be fine but if they struggle, I don’t see where the output will come from.

With the 3 promoted sides being extremely active in the transfer market, it doesn’t look as if Wolves will have as easy of a mainstay in the division this season. Wolves could see themselves dragged into an extremely fierce relegation battle but my gut tells me they’ve got the Premier League experience, midfield talent and a proven Premier League goalscorer in Strand Larsen to keep them just above those 17th to 19th spots and I think they’ll live to fight for another season.

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