Lopetegui

[Matt]

From another Forum !!!

, .

Lope is being paid an awful lot of money as well as being afforded his very own complete backroom staff.
Pablo Sanz (assistant head coach), Juan Peinado (assistant coach), Oscar Caro (fitness coach), Edu Rubio (first-team coach), Fran Garagarza (technical advisor) and Daniel Lopetegui (performance analyst) complete Lopetegui's team, and the Spaniard believes he has the right mix of experience and skills

He now suggests he saved Wolves from relegation against better squads than us.

In 20 years in management like Bruno Lage he has one piece of silverware.

Rayo Vallecano sacked ..at RM Castilla went missing... at Porto sacked, .........upon disloyalty with Spain sacked,...... at Real Madrid after 14 matches sacked,...... at Sevilla winning that piece of silverware in 2020 then sacked.

At Arsenal not FFP or Fosun, his team tactics were appalling no service to Raul, no shots on goal again and we lost 5-0

, .

.

I know he had a bit of stick but it’s a shame that Stourport Wolf has been forced to move to another forum!

 

[Fifty Niner]

Don’t care how good a manager he is, if he doesn’t want to be here then he needs to go. He’s going down a similar path to Conte at Spurs.

And to be honest, his hand is being weakened by some utterly disgraceful performances over the last few weeks. He is just as accountable as the players for that.

He kept us up but in our last four away games we have scored one and conceded 15. That’s a worrying trend to end the season on.

 

[TheConcourse]

Let's go through the XI's when they played us and compare.

Sa Vs Martinez - Villa
Semedo Vs Young - Tie (both not great)
Dawson Vs Mings - Wolves
Kilman Vs Konsa - Villa
Toti Vs Moreno - Villa
Lemina Vs Luiz - Villa
Neves Vs McGinn - Wolves
Nunes Vs Ramsey - Villa
Neto Vs B Traore - Wolves
Cunha Vs Buendia - Villa
Costa Vs Watkins - Villa

Doesn't look good.

Much of this depends on form. This is a Villa team whose manager has built their confidence quickly.

There’s nothing between that group of players beyond a goalscorer.

 

[Slothmonkey]

What's this based on? Judah's tweet? As far as I can tell JL was asked a question and he answered it.

My own opinion, I have blocked Judah and Keen ages ago as they talked utter tosh again in my opinion

 

[Perton Wolf]

I'd have nunes over Ramsey, Kilman over Konsa, RAN over Moreno. I don't think I would be the only guy here to as well.

RAN over Moreno? The bloke can't even make our squad 90% of the time. Kilman is vastly overrated on here and while Nunes has a big reputation, he's not really produced anything in the PL this season while Ramsey has 6 goals and 7 assists......

 

[Bill McCai]

If Fosun have decided they want £50m profit from the upcoming window - as per Johnny Phillips - who is going to come in post Lopetegui?

 

[Perton Wolf]

Much of this depends on form. This is a Villa team whose manager has built their confidence quickly.

There’s nothing between that group of players beyond a goalscorer.

This is where you're wrong unfortunately, too many people massively overrate our squad. Clearly we do lack a goalscorer as you say but even if we had one, it wouldn't help much because we don't create anything and that's also due to the low quality of players in the rest of the team.

 

[Wolf316]

If Fosun have decided they want £50m profit from the upcoming window - as per Johnny Phillips - who is going to come in post Lopetegui?

That’s the worrying thing and after this season you’d have thought Fosun would have learnt a lesson with how close we came to relegation. I think it’s quite simple back lopetegui or get relegated.

 

[TheConcourse]

This is where you're wrong unfortunately, too many people massively overrate our squad. Clearly we do lack a goalscorer as you say but even if we had one, it wouldn't help much because we don't create anything and that's also due to the low quality of players in the rest of the team.

The numbers say differently. Take the outlier results away (Brighton & Arsenal), the numbers show that Villa have scored more goals and conceded a relatively similar amount.

Both squads from both sides have been similar for 2/3 years now. I except Villa will accelerate past us this summer, but there’s not a lot in it right now beyond Watkins.

 

[watts]

We could have harry kane, Haaland and or Ivan Toney or salah and we still wouldn’t score as we don’t create anything,

 

[Wolves2018]

I think Nuno stood up for the club and he did it behind closed doors and with dignity.

You got a fair point, but look where that lead him and us...

 

[Perton Wolf]

The numbers say differently. Take the outlier results away (Brighton & Arsenal), the numbers show that Villa have scored more goals and conceded a relatively similar amount.

Both squads from both sides have been similar for 2/3 years now. I except Villa will accelerate past us this summer, but there’s not a lot in it right now beyond Watkins.

You're conflating results and how the teams play. My point was that we don't create anything, so a goalscorer would not be the silver bullet. Put Watkins in our team and he'd likely struggle. We need to improve the quality of the players behind the forwards too.

 

[YouGottaRaulWithIt]

If Fosun have decided they want £50m profit from the upcoming window - as per Johnny Phillips - who is going to come in post Lopetegui?

The bloke we want is managing very successfully in Saudi Arabia.

 

[Wolves2018]

No-one is coming out of this well. The team has no confidence, going backwards, and too many expensive flops with poor attitudes; we can't score, our coaching, tactics and training don't translate to chances on the pitch; Fosun are letting the stadium crumble and seem to be rowing back on commitments made; Shi looks hopeless, can't communicate to the fans; and Julen seems to be looking for excuses to back out of his contract; and yet the fans keep turning up.

I cannot believe its got this way to be honest, heart breaking and a far cry to what we were when first promoted.

 

[haveaniceday]

Whilst I feel for Lopetegui and the situation he's in, I'm already sick of hearing his public moaning. Does he seriously want to extend Costa + Adama's contract or is he just trying to make Wolves / the board look as bad as possible so he can walk away with nobody questioning his decision? Costa the 34 yr old forward with 1 goal all season? Adama who has previously turned down numerous contract extension offers because he felt he wasn't being given the big player contract/money he felt he deserved?

The guy spent 43m on Cunha, brought in Sarabia so hasn't exactly got an exemplary record with spending at Wolves, did he seriously think after spending so much in January they'd be able to spend similar amounts come the summer? Can he even be trusted with a further 100m spend?

I know he's a good manager and I'd prefer for him to stay and work out a budget with the board (I also think them giving him f.a to spend is ridiculous) but he's coming across as spoilt. Despite what other posters say, I don't think any of the big 6 would actually go for him, at best he could end up with a decent job in Europe or Brighton/Villa/Brentford level in the Prem.

Most of all I'd rather he made his decision ASAP and cracked on with the job or ****ed off, because I can't be bothered listening to another week of "crisis-talks" and him moaning to the media about not getting a second successive 100m transfer window budget which will damage our attempts to secure a decent replacement.

I don't doubt the board have had their part to play here, but he's really hanging the club out to dry currently. I'd have expected better from such an experienced manager.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

From another Forum !!!

, .

Lope is being paid an awful lot of money as well as being afforded his very own complete backroom staff.
Pablo Sanz (assistant head coach), Juan Peinado (assistant coach), Oscar Caro (fitness coach), Edu Rubio (first-team coach), Fran Garagarza (technical advisor) and Daniel Lopetegui (performance analyst) complete Lopetegui's team, and the Spaniard believes he has the right mix of experience and skills

He now suggests he saved Wolves from relegation against better squads than us.

In 20 years in management like Bruno Lage he has one piece of silverware.

Rayo Vallecano sacked ..at RM Castilla went missing... at Porto sacked, .........upon disloyalty with Spain sacked,...... at Real Madrid after 14 matches sacked,...... at Sevilla winning that piece of silverware in 2020 then sacked.

At Arsenal not FFP or Fosun, his team tactics were appalling no service to Raul, no shots on goal again and we lost 5-0

, .

.

Jeez, talk about painting a picture to suit a narrative. Not directed at you, but at the person posting on the other forum. Let’s pick a few.

For a start, in the “20 years of management” a big chunk of it was spent either leading development squads or in technical backroom roles.

As for being sacked at Spain for “disloyalty”, he led the Spanish team undefeated to Russia, and was then sacked because the head of the Spanish FA had his nose put out of joint by not being told about the RM job before he had chance to announce it himself. It wasn’t Lopetegui who leaked that, it was RM, for whatever their reasons.

And as for the succession of being “sacked” references. Are you a football fan or not? It’s the norm for coaches to get sacked or leave by “mutual agreement” more often than not. It’s the exception when they retire or walk - generally because getting sacked means they get their contracts paid out.

You do remember his Sevilla side playing us peak Nuno do you not? The peak Nuno side which finished seventh, beat the very best in the PL and yet couldn’t lay a finger on Lopetegui’s Sevilla?

As for belittling what he’s done here, let’s remember that across the time he’s been our coach, our form has us finishing 10th.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/formtabelle/wettbewerb/GB1?saison_id=2022&min=17&max=38

 

[Fifty Niner]

This is where you're wrong unfortunately, too many people massively overrate our squad. Clearly we do lack a goalscorer as you say but even if we had one, it wouldn't help much because we don't create anything and that's also due to the low quality of players in the rest of the team.

Many a Mixer has commented how much better we look when playing on the front foot. Our style of play is mostly slow, negative and one dimensional. When we do create anything there’s mostly only one or two Wolves players in the box, or so it seems. This hasn’t changed since Nuno’s last season, apart from Bruno’s opening games, despite more than £175m investment from Fosun.

 

[Wonder Boyo]

Really good article on The Athletic about the reasons for Leicester City's relegation. It cites many different reasons, but this point here seems eerily similar to our current situation:




Full article here for those with a subscription:

Leicester didn't see relegation coming until it was too late

Leicester City have been relegated from the Premier League. Complacency proved the undoing of the former champions

theathletic.com

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

That’s the worrying thing and after this season you’d have thought Fosun would have learnt a lesson with how close we came to relegation. I think it’s quite simple back lopetegui or get relegated.

Yet we had a massive net spend and we came close to relegation.
Personally from what I have seen so far I think if we back Lopetegui with another x amount of money we'll be in the same situation in 12 months time. Bottom half complaining that the players are all **** and if only we would back the guy.

 

[Golden Oldie]

Just listened to the interview and maybe it is a translation problem.
Here goes, instead of, Re-sign, basically buy them back, he means resign them, which in Spanish is Renunciar which means give up your job or refuse to take it.
Maybe he means we need some players to leave and quickly, otherwise I can't buy the players I want, because we only have so much money because of FFP.
A long shot and probably wrong, but maybe it is the translation that is wrong.

I find him as difficult to comprehend as I did his predecessor. I'm not suggesting he should be damned because of that but it would be a reasonable move if he used an interpreter. Communication with not only players but also supporters can be critical and needs to be thought of in those terms.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

I read the articles on the day of his last match and saw several leaders of supporters clubs saying that there club was looking pathetic by having a manager in the dug out, who was being replaced after the match. The applause were to say thank you and a protest against Monchi, for not sacking him before the match
He did give Sevilla some good years and didn't deserve to be treated like that, but it was the same fans who had been protesting to get him put of the club, who applauded him for his services and eventhough I dislike Sevilla, I respect what they did.
I have said repeatedly that Lopetegui should stay and get on with the job he is doing and I am still saying that. He, I have also said he did well to keep us up.
So I am critical of his behaviour and having his freinds reporting about the problems with FFP, money problems and him not commiting to the club that is paying his lwages and causing instability in our club, but giving him credit for keeping us up and saying he should stay and get on with his job.
There are some people who only praise him and think the club is bad and everything he does is right, he is an elite manager. It wasn't his fault Sevilla had their worst ever start and have never ever criticised him for anything and blame Sevilla and now Wolves for everything.
That to me is unbalanced, irrational and not objective, but that is their choice. You won't see me trying to shut people up or insulting them.

I have no problem with you putting a point of view, but the stuff about how he was hated at Sevilla seems overstated. You could find a load of posts on here about how Nuno should go. You told us he was a bad choice for us, which I don't think many would agree with now. Also told us that you would back him if we appointed him, which fair enough you did until now, but now you're calling him disloyal when all he's done is ask for more money to spend for our club. It's pretty clear that Nuno did that behind closed doors and got the boot. Saying Lopetegui made mistakes at Sevilla is one thing, saying he deliberately undermined the team to fail and get paid off is quite another. I should also say that I don't have an agenda against Shi or Guo either, it'll all come out in the wash, I think Lopetegui will stay and we'll invest what we can, but we're not a 'plaything' club, we're an investment and that's creating a tension between the hierarchy and managers that the top 7 don't have.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

Many a Mixer has commented how much better we look when playing on the front foot. Our style of play is mostly slow, negative and one dimensional. When we do create anything there’s mostly only one or two Wolves players in the box, or so it seems. This hasn’t changed since Nuno’s last season, apart from Bruno’s opening games, despite more than £175m investment from Fosun.

I think we look better for dropping a midfielder. It isn't rocket science. We overload in that area and do nothing with it.

 

[TheConcourse]

You're conflating results and how the teams play. My point was that we don't create anything, so a goalscorer would not be the silver bullet. Put Watkins in our team and he'd likely struggle. We need to improve the quality of the players behind the forwards too.

Tbf, you also compared the teams after we beat them on the day..

Having a striker that’s willing the make runs with midfielders who are able to pick them out can never be underestimated.

Watkins would run riot with Neves.

 

[Stourport wolf]

How do we know he hasn’t done it privately first and got nowhere so is now using the press?

I am sure he did go privately first, but would what do you think is the most likely outcome of him using social media through his freinds and then his television interviews?
It is true he could get what ge wants, but if you were the owner of a football club, would you trust someone by giving them many millions, if someone at the very least backed you in a corner and at the worst tried to blackmail you to sack them?
On the other hand he did a good job in keeping us up and now he knows the Premier League better than he did.
I personally still think he could do a job for us and will make us a top half of the table team, but he isn't doing himself any favours at the moment.

 

[Wolf316]

Yet we had a massive net spend and we came close to relegation.
Personally from what I have seen so far I think if we back Lopetegui with another x amount of money we'll be in the same situation in 12 months time. Bottom half complaining that the players are all **** and if only we would back the guy.

It’s about getting the right players in and our recruitment has been awful for years. Now we’ve got Hobbs, Julen and Garagarza I think our recruitment will be much much better but they need the right backing to be able to land our targets.

 

[Wolf316]

I am sure he did go privately first, but would what do you think is the most likely outcome of him using social media through his freinds and then his television interviews?
It is true he could get what ge wants, but if you were the owner of a football club, would you trust someone by giving them many millions, if someone at the very least backed you in a corner and at the worst tried to blackmail you to sack them?
On the other hand he did a good job in keeping us up and now he knows the Premier League better than he did.
I personally still think he could do a job for us and will make us a top half of the table team, but he isn't doing himself any favours at the moment.

The club started all this by giving info to Liam Keene saying due to FFP there’s no money for Julen to spend.

 

[LosgallardosWolf]

ffs?

Yes it sounds a bit of a pant wetting comment

 

[Perton Wolf]

Yet we had a massive net spend and we came close to relegation.
Personally from what I have seen so far I think if we back Lopetegui with another x amount of money we'll be in the same situation in 12 months time. Bottom half complaining that the players are all **** and if only we would back the guy.

From what you've seen? Is not being 10th since Lop has been appointed not enough for you? With a squad that is rather poor.

 

[Perton Wolf]

Tbf, you also compared the teams after we beat them on the day..

Having a striker that’s willing the make runs with midfielders who are able to pick them out can never be underestimated.

Watkins would run riot with Neves.

Would he? I like Neves but he's not exactly the most progressive/forward thinking CM, or hasn't been traditionally.

 

[Stourport wolf]

I know he had a bit of stick but it’s a shame that Stourport Wolf has been forced to move to another forum!

Well you should read the Spanish Wolves Facebook Forum, if you think I am anti Lopetegui and I don't post on there . Lol.
If you look at what I have actually said since he has been our manager, I haven't criticised what he has done but praised him. I have been critical of his behaviour, but still say we should keep him.
I think I am getting the blame because I clearly thought he was completely overated before he came here and didn't like his previous disloyalty, moaning and blaming everyone else but his self, but what he has done, by the way of results has been good and I respect that

 

[JOSWolf]

Really good article on The Athletic about the reasons for Leicester City's relegation. It cites many different reasons, but this point here seems eerily similar to our current situation:

View attachment 34891
View attachment 34894

Full article here for those with a subscription:

Leicester didn't see relegation coming until it was too late

Leicester City have been relegated from the Premier League. Complacency proved the undoing of the former champions

theathletic.com

The tone is set for us next season if we arent careful. A warning to Shi and Fosun.

 

[DPE]

With the squad that we have and the money we have spent last season, has he done an amazing job?

With the players that we have and the money spent should we be expecting better performances?

I hope he stays but not going to worry too much if goes because he doesn’t want to be here.

 

[TheConcourse]

Would he? I like Neves but he's not exactly the most progressive/forward thinking CM, or hasn't been traditionally.

Yes.

 

[Stourport wolf]

From what you've seen? Is not being 10th since Lop has been appointed not enough for you? With a squad that is rather poor.

It is enough for me.

Do you think leaking through Social media and saying you don't know if you will be here and not commiting to continue at Wolves, is doing our club any good and bringing us stability and making it more likely players will want to come to Wolves?

 

[Matt]

Well you should read the Spanish Wolves Facebook Forum, if you think I am anti Lopetegui and I don't post on their. Lol.
If you look at what I have actually said since he has been our manager, I haven't criticised what he has done but praised him. I have been critical of his behaviour, but still say we should keep him.
I think I am getting the blame because I clearly thought he was completely overated before he came here and didn't like his previous disloyalty, moaning and blaming everyone else but his self, but what he has done, by the way of results has been good and I respect that

Lol I was only joking mate, I appreciate your perspective on Lopetegui as someone who lives in/around Seville. I also don’t like his behaviour over the last couple of weeks. He’s put the club in a very bad light heading into a huge summer.

 

[Fifty Niner]

The tone is set for us next season if we arent careful. A warning to Shi and Fosun.

Managers aren’t thick. Surely the must know that they can’t keep adding to their squads without outgoings (unless it’s Man Citeh it seems). They too have to plan ahead.

Rodgers and now Lopetegui went public in telling their respective boards that their players aren’t good enough. That may not mean ever player of course but it’s a team game and if your manager is on a downer and doesn’t believe in the team then this will ultimately play out on the pitch.

 

[Superted]

Julen Lopetegui unable to re-sign Wolves stars

Julen Lopetegui has revealed he is being stopped from re-signing some out of contract players due to Wolves’ concerning financial situation.

www.expressandstar.com

This makes absolutely no sense to me. It may be that players expect a signing on fee but these would be minimal compared to transfer fees. Yes, the club will also need to commit to higher wages but again, this would be less than any transfer fee.

I would expect any signing on fees could be amortised because they're not technically part of player remuneration. The signing on fee is essentially a payment to the player in exchange fod the rights to his registration so in that sense it's similar to a transfer fee but but much lower.

If we don't even have the wiggle room to re-sign two or three players that have been on the books for several years then we really are in big trouble.

Unless the spending last year was predicated on not renewing contracts such as Adama and Moutinho (which I find hard to believe as the contract offer to Adama has been on the table for about 18 months and wasn't withdrawn).

Last year's spending/accounts have now (subject to auditing) already been set in stone so unless they got their budgeting completely wrong or something unexpected happened I fail to see how they couldn't have seen this coming such that they would make any sort of specific guarantee or promise of spending to JL. Either that or JL was asking the wrong questions before he took the job.

Either way I hope its not as bad as it seems and JL is either exaggerating publicly or has misunderstood the situation. I would guess there are various moving parts to this and certain things need to fall into place before we can crack on.

 

[lobodelsur]

Really good article on The Athletic about the reasons for Leicester City's relegation. It cites many different reasons, but this point here seems eerily similar to our current situation:

View attachment 34891
View attachment 34894

Full article here for those with a subscription:

Leicester didn't see relegation coming until it was too late

Leicester City have been relegated from the Premier League. Complacency proved the undoing of the former champions

theathletic.com

Or use 'removepaywall.com'

 

[1972 i began]

Come on, open your eyes. I have said he has done a good job and deserves credit. He is nowhere so fantastic as some are making out, but he has kept us up
His media antics and behaviour isn't anything new. It is possible to say he should talk privately with the club and get on with his job and also say he has done a good job and deserves credit, don't you at least agree with that?

How about shutting up about what the Sevilla fans think about him,and what he’s done in the past.If like ya keep saying ,he has history of this sort of thing,don’t ya think Fosun know about it,if not then its Fosun or Jeff shi that should be taking all this crap not Julen.

 

[Summer_Wolf]

I’m with you on almost all of this.

JL has done a brilliant job keeping us up after Portuguese Saunders left. However, this should not be being played out in public.

If JL says he doesn’t understand we have FFP issues (after we brought in Cunha, Gomes, Dawson, Lemina, Bentley and Sarabia for a cost of c£75m plus Traore acquisition triggered with no income generated from sales) I find that odd, disingenuous and very worrying. His demands, now knowing FFP challenges, to buy/buy/buy are extremely concerning and suggests to me he doesn’t care for the future of Wolves and only himself. I don’t currently see this ending well. If we move on, please be quick. If he stays please shut him up.

In my mind we need to generate c£50m of sales to cover the c£200m spent over the last 12 months which is presumably amortising at c£50m p.a. If we generate £100m of sales then I’d expect Julen to have £50-£75m to spend depending on who is sold (those with no/little amortisation left being most sellable e.g. Neves, Podence, Kilman). Sales and buys won’t happen by 1 July.

i don’t see this being about Fosun and investment, this is FFP. We have had massive support from Fosun (other than on ground).

A long Summer ahead. Whatever happens, we are Wolves.

Thank you Julen for saving us from relegation. Thank you Fosun for your financial support this season.

It partly is imo. Fosun only invested this season when they had no choice and we were in utterly dire straights. Relegation = bye bye to the brand, bye bye to all their off the pitch marketing etc etc. I'd say that's the only reason they invested, where was this investment for the previous 3 years? For me they only bothered investing because we were going down, however, that's another debate entirely. I do find it ironic that in the past, Jeff has bemoaned FFP yet he and Fosun are the ones entirely responsibly for it by leaning on Mendes and letting him bleed the club dry with awful, expensive flops in the last 3 years. This whole ffp situation is all on Fosun and their mismanagement.