Wolves fans are currently feeling pretty optimistic about life under Vitor Pereira.
The Portuguese has now been in charge at Molineux for around four months, after replacing Gary O’Neil.
His objective is crystal clear; to keep Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.
And he is now looking well on his way to achieving that, having opened up a nine-point gap down to the relegation zone. Alan Shearer believes the relegation battle is now done and that Wolves will survive.
Wolves beat Southampton 2-1 before the international break, and afterwards, Vitor Pereira made some interesting comments.
He talked about how he was one of the fans, and Pereira also admitted he would like to go for pints of beer with Wolves supporters.
His popularity is certainly rising – and Dave Edwards has suggested he could be looking to follow in the footsteps of Nuno Espirito Santo.
Dave Edwards believes Vitor Pereira could be looking to emulate Nuno Espirito Santo at Wolves
Molineux was starting to get toxic at the end of O’Neil’s reign.
Performances had been so poor under him and in the end, pretty much every fan had turned on him.
But of course, he wasn’t the only reason for poor results, with many calling out the ownership of the club.
Wolves have pretty much struggled since Nuno Espirito Santo left the club in 2021, barring a few optimistic periods.
For a lot of fans, there was real magic under Nuno that just hasn’t been felt since he left.
But Edwards believes Pereira may be trying to connect with the fans in a similar way to Nuno.
He said on the Wolves Unpacked podcast: “As a player you want the fans to be behind you as much as possible.
“That as a team and the manager’s a huge part of that. The best managers will have a relationship with the fans which you can sense a real deep true connection because then the fans will give you a little bit more leeway.
“I think we really saw that with Nuno. There was that deep sense of ‘he’s one of us’. And everything he did in the community and things. It was a really special relationship and I’m sure that Vitor Pereira will feel that he wants to try and create something similar to that because if you do that, when the bad games do come, they’re not going to be on your back as much as they potentially would otherwise
“I do think it’s from a really honest and sincere place. I know how grateful he is to be a Premier League manager. It’s something he’s always wanted to do and he’s never really had the opportunity, and he wants to grasp it with both hands.”
“The big thing is Wolverhampton is a one-club city. It’s huge, you see that with what happened with Newcastle at the weekend. It’s special when you get these clubs and you have to be one with people.”
Pereira could be the next Nuno
Nuno provided Wolves fans with some very special memories during his tenure.
It will be a tall order for Pereira to follow in his compatriot’s footsteps at Molineux. But he’s undoubtedly off to a really positive start.
His job right now is to keep Wolves in the top-flight.
| Vitor Pereira for Wolves so far (all competitions) |
| Games managed – 16 |
| Wins – 7 |
| Draws – 2 |
| Losses – 7 |
| PL points won – 17 |
Once he achieves that, he can start planning for the future and the fans will be behind him all the way.
You do get the sense that there is real potential with Pereira to take Wolves back up the Premier League table and get the club pushing for Europe again.
But of course, a big factor in whether he manages to do that will be how well backed he is by his superiors.
Hopefully, Fosun do give him the tools he needs.