Wolves Fans' Verdict: Premier League prospects assessed

Clive Smith

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

The Championship might be the hardest league to get out of, but the bar is now higher from a quality point of view.

Let's not kid ourselves it will be easy. We won 14 away games this season – Burnley have won 'only' 14 games all season. Yet they present the perfect benchmark for us.

The speed of the game can be intense and the pace of players is much quicker.

Imagine what the West Ham forward, Arnautovic, bought for £20million, would have been like in the Championship. Far better than any player we came up against, yet he is in a side who have been in the bottom six most of season.

Spending money can help but there is a risk with every signing. A risk on a £1m- £2m player who does not work out is easier to swallow than a £10m-£15m player who fails. Every team in the Prem has money to spend so that in itself offers us no advantage.

We can look at our favourable cup performances and results against Southampton and City with our 'shadow' side, but equally a home draw and away defeat against Swansea would not be sufficient next season.

My memory of the Premier League is four seasons of misery. Obviously we all hope for better this time around. It is encouraging that Wolves look better than Newcastle, Brighton and Huddersfield were this time last season and they have survived.

It is a different game however and the emphasis on deceit, cynical fouls, gamesmanship and cheating goes up a level. How good will we be at the dark arts and how will our temperament cope when refs consistently favour the top six with their decision making?

Costa and Jota are very skilful but if they find themselves on the floor, on halfway, looking to the ref, and only getting the occasional free kick, their contribution to the team will be significantly reduced.

The intention is not to be pessimistic at all, but offer a reality check now this season's celebrations are done.

Like this season, if our Prem status is assured with four games to go that will be a fine achievement.

Natalie Wood

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

If you asked me this after the Cardiff game I would have said Europe and anything less will be a disaster. But now the celebrations have slowed down my hope for the season is quite simple...that we are able to compete with the best.

Ultimately we all know our aim is to become a team challenging for Europe and one day become a football super-power but it isn’t going to happen overnight.

We need to build our foundations and become a stable member of the Premier League and m expectation is a 12th-14th place finish. If we achieve this I think it will be seen a very good season.

We are an excellent side at the moment and undoubtedly we will strengthen over the summer but next year is going to be a challenge. The Premier League is a very different test to the Championship and we have to remember we are going in with a lot of players that have no top flight experience.

Our defence is going to be tested by some of the best attackers in the world and Neves will no longer be a very big fish in a small pond, although I think he will still shine through as one of the best...I can’t think of many players in the Prem that can pass like him!

All that being said I obviously wouldn’t complain if we recreated Burnley’s 2017/18 season...

Russ Evers (Hatherton Wolves)

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

There is no reason why, if we can retain the nucleus of this season's team and add wisely, that we cannot be up there challenging for a top half position or even higher next season.

It's a completely different feeling to the last few promotions to the Premier League.

This time we seem to have the desire, belief and more importantly the financial muscle and know how to spend wisely and bolster the squad

Rob Cartwright

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

We have never been better prepared for a season in the top flight and that’s before we strengthen the squad.

I expect quite a few of the fringe players to be moved on and replaced with three or four first team ready players.

I trust Nuno to get it right. I have every faith in him and will be disappointed not to finish in the top half; but the sky really is the limit.

I won’t be at all surprised if we finish between seventh and 10th next season and knocking on the door of a top six place the following season.

Russ Cockburn

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

This is a difficult one. Fosun aren’t going to settle for 17th place, yet I’m not buying into Wolves competing with Real Madrid, Bayern and Man City for a while...2021 would be fine, as that would allow me time to build up some brownie points with the wife for the European adventure.

With the right investment in key places I'm going for top 12, with a decent cup run. Small, but important steps forward in the journey, giving us time and the platform to continue to build for the future.

That’s the pragmatist in me. The optimist in me looks at last season’s table and focuses on Burnley, a team with limited resources, a cracking manager and some very decent players.

Am I scared of Burnley? No. Could we give them a game with our current team? Yes. Could we finish seventh next year with strategic acquisitions and bit of momentum? I'll let someone else answer that.

Adam Virgo

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

Next season I am hoping we can make a good account for ourselves in the Premier League.

I'd like to think we can achieve a mid-table position which with what we currently have at our disposal and what we can do to improve the squad would be respectable for a first season back in the top division.

It's certainly not going to be easy though as each team have a player or players that can punish you on their given day and I’m sure every Wolves fan knows that our squad needs improving in certain areas.

I certainly expect us to make some signings and I also expect a couple of fringe players to be moved on or possibly loaned out for the best of their futures and for us moving forward as a club.

I fully expect us to stay in the Premier League at the bare minimum, even with the current squad now as I believe it’s good enough to stay in the division.

From what I’ve watched in terms of teams in the Premier League this season, we could definitely pick up points against a lot of sides providing we can perform to the level and beyond that we have seen regularly this season.

The club have their ambitions. The quality we already have along with additions will make us well equipped for the top flight.

Chris Hughes

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

This is the difficult question to answer. Part of me gets caught up in the excitement of Fosun’s millions and thinks we could go banging straight into a challenge with the big-hitters of the top six.

Seeing Burnley competing up there this season with our ex-players Ward and Vokes and other players of a similar background to them only heightens the expectations.

However, when I engage my brain a little more, I temper the expectations a little.

We have a lack of significant depth in the squad at the moment to compete at the top level and a serious injury to key players like Boly, Jota and, most significantly, Neves would leave us with big holes to fill.

There are a few players who will need to leave as they won’t cut it at the top level too and, much as Fosun have almost unlimited resources at their disposal, there will still be some restrictions on how much they can invest this summer in fees and wages.

My expectation is that we won’t struggle. I’d expect a points tally somewhere around the 45 mark which would have landed us a mid-table finish this season.

With more quality additions and a bit of luck then maybe we can push higher but the risk of new signings not settling could also see us struggle.

If I’m being asked this question again 12 months time and we’re still a Premier League club preparing for a second summer of investing in the playing squad, I’d take that.

Heather Large

What are your hopes and expectations for next season?

I would expect the players to be excited to get the season under way and I hope we can have a strong start to build our confidence from the get-go.

I think if we can get a few good performances under our belt in our opening games, it will stand us in good stead for the coming months.

Obviously maintaining our Premier League status is an absolute must, but it would be good to do this comfortably without any of the heart-wrenching scenes we've witnessed in the top flight before.

There are a lot of rumours going around about players we might be targeting so it's going to be interesting to see how this unfolds over the summer.

Tomorrow – which of the current squad can cut it in the Prem?