Beware the record books, Wolves…..seasons that fall in the middle of a decade have a nasty habit of ending in disappointment.
The club went down in 1984-85, lost in the play-offs in 1994-95, trod water back in the second tier in 2004-05 after relegation and were pipped to a top-six Championship finish in 2014-15.
Before that, they were edged out by Chelsea in the race for the title in 1954-55, took the drop from the top flight in 1964-65 and went out of three cups at the first hurdle in 1974-75.
It’s hardly the most encouraging backcloth for the current struggle at the foot of the Premier League, which has Gary O’Neil’s side bottom of the table again going into this afternoon’s game at Brighton despite substantial impressive spells in many of their matches.
The 2024-25 return of one point from eight games going into the final weekend of October is way worse than 40 years ago – a season which ended, coincidentally, with relegation being confirmed through a 5-1 thrashing at Brighton.
The club had two wins on the board by this stage and, by further coincidence, one of those was 2-0 at home to Manchester City.
Only one point was won in the first seven fixtures of 1964-65 and, even when a win finally came at the eighth attempt, it didn’t save Molineux’s greatest ever manager, Stan Cullis, who was subsequently shown the door not long after returning to his post following illness.
Imagine the gloom that descended over Wolverhampton when Wolves then lost all of their next seven games to slide into danger of being cut adrift at the foot of a division they had won twice in a row only a few seasons earlier.
Cullis’s men looked like becoming champions again ten seasons previously, only for a late-season defeat at Stamford Bridge to hand the edge to a Chelsea side who took advantage to get their hands on the big prize.
Twelfth place, meanwhile, at the end of 1974-75 – what Wolves would give for that next May! – might not look a disaster but it was a significant backwards step after what had preceded it.
The club had finished fifth in 1972-73 and 12th again in their first League Cup-winning year. But the follow-up was disappointing, not least because their hold on the silverware was prised away by Second Division Fulham at Molineux, Porto knocked them out of the UEFA Cup three weeks later and then Ipswich pointed them to the FA Cup exit at the third-round stage.
Thank goodness there are six-plus months left to turn round the difficult and embarrassing situation Wolves now find themselves in.