Bruno Lage has today been speaking about his sacking by Wolves.
The 46-year-old was relieved of his duties exactly one month ago today, following a string of poor results.
The former Benfica head coach lasted 16 months in charge at Molineux, and had initially made a good impression.
He was not backed in his first transfer window, and after a tricky start, managed to get some really good results.
By the end of January, Wolves were firmly in contention for a form of European football come the end of the season.
The defence was rock solid, which was given the team a really good chance.
But Wolves fell away in the final couple of months of the 2021/22 campaign. The team failed to win any of their last seven games, losing five of them.
Lage couldn’t turn around the team’s fortunes coming into the new season. He was sacked following the 2-0 defeat to West Ham United at the start of the month.
Since his sacking, there have been claims that some players had grown tired of his methods, including his tendency to hold long team meetings.
Lage has been speaking about his sacking, and has appeared to suggest he wasn’t particularly helped when it came to recruitment. He has implied he didn’t have the right kind of players for what he wanted to do, and also suggested business was conducted too late.
He said (as quoted by Mirror journalist Alex Richards): “A big lesson I learned was that I need to convince people of what I need. I had good ideas… but I didn’t have the time, nor the right players. I didn’t need expensive players, but the right ones.
“Every time we played without a striker, we lost. The performance is completely different. Another thing was it’s important for players to arrive in time for pre-season. It’s so competitive & when they get to the end of the market, it’s difficult to adapt.”
Bruno Lage seemingly takes swipe at Wolves board following sacking last month, the working relationship clearly wasn’t great
It was always going to be quite interesting to hear what Lage really thought about his time at Wolves.
He left a rather classy message on his Instagram following his dismissal, but it did feel as though he would have something to say later down the line.
With these comments, he is saying that he didn’t necessarily have the right players to carry out his ideas.
Clearly, the relationship between him and those that have a say in recruitment could have been a lot better.
He has a fair point about lacking a proper striker. And not getting players in early for pre-season also probably didn’t help his cause.
But ultimately Lage was backed very heavily in the summer with some really talented players. His points return and the level of performances that followed just weren’t good enough.