Master Manager On The March

Nuno Espirito Santo is about to become the seventh longest-serving manager in Wolves’ 144-year history.

Friday’s home game with Leeds will take the Molineux head coach past Dave Jones, with whom he is level in the list, both currently having overseen 185 League and cup matches.

Already this season, Nuno has climbed above Mark McGhee and John Barnwell but still has some highly illustrious names ahead of him.

And what is clear is that his record stands up extremely well against that of Jones, who held the Wolves post from January, 2001 to October, 2004 in succession to Colin Lee.

The Portuguese has the hugely impressive stats of 92 wins, 43 draws and 50 defeats whereas Jones’s corresponding figures were 74, 49, 62. And the present incumbent has spent only one season managing the club in the Championship, compared with the former Southampton manager’s span of almost three seasons at the second level.

Something else we can state with confidence is that there will be no more queue-hopping for Nuno for quite some time in the wake of him marking his 100th Premier League match with the fine victory at Southampton.

The man who will be immediately above him come the weekend is Mick McCarthy, who took charge of 270 competitive first-team matches from 2006 to 2012.

And that means Nuno is currently 85 games behind him, which is the equivalent of at least two full seasons of fixtures – unless we are talking about a freakish campaign one like 2019-20 with all of its Europa League highlights.

If McCarthy is overhauled, there will be an even bigger gap to bridge on Bill McGarry and fourth-placed Graham Turner.

And above them stand Major Frank Buckley (542 games), Stan Cullis (748) and, on top of the pile, Jack Addenbrooke (859).

Please click on the word ‘Managers’ on the bar above to see the full list, which include details of an individual’s first game, last game and a breakdown on matches he has overseen in the League and different cups.