Wolves fans are not best pleased with Vitor Pereira’s latest decision regarding his Premier League squad.
After a surprising January transfer window saw three players arrive as well as a shock exit, the Wolves squad is looking rather different heading into the second half of the campaign.
Pereira sanctioned the transfer of Mario Lemina, who joined Galatasaray in a permanent move after his disastrous end to life at Wolves.
As well as the former captain, academy product Luke Cundle signed for Millwall, closing the book on his time at Molineux.
With Premier League survival the only thing on Pereira’s mind, the Wolves manager locked in his squad for the remainder of the season, believing his decisions were the best when it came to keeping the Old Gold up.
Wolves fans are admirers of Pereira but, many supporters are conflicted about the boss’ choices when submitting his 25-man squad.
Wolves fans unhappy with Vitor Pereira’s Premier League squad submission
Three notable absences were spotted in Pereira’s squad for the rest of the 2024/25 campaign, with Yerson Mosquera, Sasa Kalajdzic and Craig Dawson missing out.
While Mosquera is recovering from an ACL injury, the latter two names have caused quite a stir amongst the Wolves fanbase, with some questioning Pereira’s decisions.
Fans were not happy to see Kalajdzic frozen out, given that the striker is very close to returning from a nightmare injury scenario.
“Thought Sasa wasn’t too far away from coming back? Would sooner have kept Dawson in than a 4th keeper,” A Wolves supporter said, something that many agreed with.
“It’s a shame there is no way of including Sasa given he should be fit in the next 6 weeks or so.”
The narrative around the squad selection was Pereira’s choice to register four goalkeepers, with plenty of fans questioning Tom King’s inclusion.
“Tom King over Craig Dawson is ridiculous,” a fan said, as another echoed the opinion, “Four GK’s but no Dawson. That’s ridiculous.”
Talk of Dawson missing out took over discussion but, several supporters realised that rather than the Englishman missing out due to lack of space, it was in fact Pereira’s decision to axe the defender.
“Dawson could still have gone in only 22 players named and he’s homegrown, contract cancellation soon!”
Another loyal supporter said, “It’s not Tom King over Dawson. There are 22 players there, spots for 3 more homegrown players. Dawson could have easily been included, but clearly, he has no future at the club.”
“After playing full backs and centre mids in central defence this season, you’d think they’d at least have Dawson as back up for another injury crisis,” a concerned fan raised.
Dawson is in talks to terminate his Wolves contract as it’s become clear that he’s not a part of Pereira’s plans, something that some supporters don’t believe is the right decision.
“Genuinely makes zero sense to leave Dawson out, just name him in the squad and release him at the end of the season. If we release him now and he signs for Leicester, all we are doing is weakening our team and strengthening one of closest relegation rivals. Stupid.”
Craig Dawson has his uses at Wolves
This time last season, it would be unthinkable to imagine the squad without Dawson, who was one of O’Neil’s most reliable players.
The veteran centre-back was crucial to the Old Gold’s 14th-place finish last term but, things are now very different, with Pereira not as sold on the Englishman’s value.
Fortunately, Wolves did welcome two centre-backs in the winter, with Nasser Djiga and Emmanuel Agbadou arriving to bolster but, depth remains very low.
Losing Dawson looks to be an inevitability at this point, which is a dire shame given what the player’s experience could have offered to the remainder of the relegation-threatened campaign.