The 2008/9 season resulted in a mixed bag of fortunes for the teams promoted from the Championship. West Brom, the previous year's winners, were sent straight back down, play off qualifiers Hull just scraped a stay of execution on the last day of the season and the 2007/08 championship runners up Stoke finishing in a respectable 12th position. This season Wolves, Birmingham and Burnley are the 3 clubs with the Premiership mountain to climb; all no doubt are full of ambition and optimism but will require a great deal of spend and probably luck if they have a hope of staying in this league next year. Starting with Wolves, what chance do they realistically have?Wolves have a fine pedigree in the game and were particularly successful in the 1950s, winning 3 league titles. Their chief executive Jez Moxey has stated that the club's aim is to emulate the achievements of this era rather than "just" staying up in next season's Premiership. Although this ambition is admirable, Wolves fans will remember that their last experience of the Premiership was short lived (relegated in 2004 after a single season and without winning a single away game) and will doubt be hoping that the Wolves hierarchy do focus first and foremost on surviving. The 2003-04 season was however not without it's highlights as the Molineux failthful saw their team defeat Manchester United 1-0 and it is these sort of performances that the fans will hope can be repeated next season.
Survival will of course depend on how much the club is prepared to invest in new players. Thankfully the financial difficulties of the 1980s, which saw Wolves almost bankrupted and bailed out by the local council, are behing the club. Millionaire owner Steve Morgan is keen to "transform the city centre ground into a venue fit for Premiership football", with the first stage being to re-introduce 900 temporary seats, previously introduced during Wolves' last Premiership experience, into the ground.
The revenue from the 900 seats will however not be enough to raise the extra investment that Wolves legend Steve Bull believes will be necessary to keep the club in the Premier League. Bull believes that £50 million will be required and that this sum will only be enough to pay for five players in terms of fees and wages. Bull believes that Wolves need two centre-halves, two midfielders and a front man. To date Wolves have been coy about how much they plan to invest, but have gone on record to say they are willing to spend the rght amount on the right players.
Many Wolves fans however have doubts about Mick McCarthy's ability to invest in the right players, pointing to his time at Sunderland, during which they claim he bought lots of lower league players rather than a smaller number of high quality players, which they believe the club needs. These fans will however be comforted by the fact that the popular Karl Henry has agreed improved terms on a new four-year deal with the Championship winners. Chris Iwelumo, another fans favourite, has also confirmed that he and the whole squad are hungry to succeeed in the Premier league and will put the work in to maximise their chances.The Scottish international netted 16 goals last term as Wolves clinched the Championship title but he missed the end of season through injury.
So will Wolves spend the right money on the right players and succeed where their Midlands neighbours West Brom failed? Current odds for staying up are about the 4/5 mark. In my opinion Birmingham have the better chance, but more on that another time ....
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