It is a few days since Chelsea became champions of the world but more than 67 years since Wolves did. Not officially, admittedly.
Their 1954 friendly win over a Honved featuring Ferenc Puskas, Zoltan Czibor and Sandor Kocsis prompted the Daily Mail to anoint them as such. That heady declaration helped lead to the foundation of the European Cup but, since a quarter-final defeat to Barcelona in 1959-60, Wolves have been exiled from it.
Until next season? Perhaps. Maybe they could qualify for the Champions League by stealth. There has long seemed to be a four-way fight for fourth place, except that Wolves are ahead of one of those sides, Tottenham, having just beaten them. They won away at another, Manchester United, last month. They visit the other two, Arsenal and West Ham, later in February. Complete a grand slam of away victories and perhaps they will be propelled into the position of favourites. As it is, their games in hand mean they could leapfrog the two Uniteds, if not Arsenal.
All by taking the most inconspicuous route possible. Even Wolves’ flagship wins were camouflaged: to the wider world, they were chastening setbacks for United and Spurs. Wolves found the most low-profile, but hugely competent, manager available in the quietly impressive Bruno Lage; the Portuguese doesn’t even have Claude Puel’s gimmick of being inaudible but if the majority know very little about Lage, he also managed to deflect attention with his start. By losing their first three games, albeit while playing well, Wolves ensured they were playing catch-up and thus never actually in the top four.
And, by and large, they eschew the most attention-garnering aspect of football: scoring goals. Wolves’ tally of 21 works out at under one a game and is two fewer than Watford’s total. Logic dictates that a team who are on course to score 35 goals this season cannot finish in the top four; even when David Moyes’ Everton sprang a surprise in 2004/05 with the unprolific workhorse Marcus Bent alone in attack, they got 45.
Wolves had one burst of four goals from Hwang Hee-Chan while Raul Jimenez has five without looking back to his brilliant best. No one else has more than two. Three of their forwards – Daniel Podence, Fabio Silva and Trincao – have made a combined 49 Premier League appearances, albeit a total inflated by outings off the bench, this season without scoring. That doesn’t look a recipe for Champions League qualification.
And to enable them to go still further under the radar, Wolves even disposed of their most eye-catching talent, Adama Traore, in a winter transfer window that scarcely oozed ambition. Perhaps that, too, is part of a cunning plan, lulling everyone else into a false sense of security. Maybe United, Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham will be too busy fixating on each others’ results to notice Wolves until it is too late.
But certainly, Lage has the best defence of the contenders. Typically, they have been assembled quietly. Jose Sa sounded as though he may be a downgrade on Rui Patricio. Instead, he has been one of the signings of the season, boasting a save percentage of 85.2. His three centre-backs were acquired for around £5 million, two when Wolves were in the Championship, one from non-league. Perhaps Romain Saiss, Conor Coady and Max Kilman are all having the seasons of their lives. United and West Ham have almost conceded twice as many goals as Wolves. Indeed, only Manchester City and Sevilla have conceded fewer in any of Europe’s top five leagues.
Meanwhile, the timelessness of the class of the midfield axis of Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho means their excellence hardly seems newsworthy. But they have provided a platform and Wolves have been efficient in making a little go a long way, dealing in binary scorelines that make the first goal hugely important. Wolves have won 10 of 11 when scoring first, one of nine when conceding the opening goal of a game. Get a lead, though, and they are hard to break down.
But if a team whose matches produce an average of 1.65 goals per match have rationed excitement, it might just be the low-key formula to gatecrash the Champions League.
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