Daniel Podence believes Wolves missed Conor Coady and Romain Saiss’ experience in the first half of the season.
It was a summer of big change for Wolves in 2022.
A number of great players came into the club.
But several departed too, including some that had been at the club for years.
John Ruddy, Willy Boly, Leander Dendoncker, Fernando Marcal, Coady and Saiss were among the most experienced players to go.
It was quite surprising that that many older players left.
But many still deemed Wolves’ window a success purely because of the players that had come in.
Nathan Collins, Goncalo Guedes, Matheus Nunes, Sasa Kalajdzic and Boubacar Traore were five players fans were very excited about.
But as the season progressed, it became clear that Wolves were suffering from a lack of leaders and characters.
And now, Podence has admitted the team missed Coady and Saiss in particular.
He said (Wolves official): “That was our difficulty at the start of the season, because we have a lot of quality, but we had no experience. That has changed now with Craig [Dawson] and Mario [Lemina], even with Pablo [Sarabia] who has come in too.
“We’re talking about people who have played more than 10 years in professional football at a high level who are now in our squad.
“To reach good things, we really need that mentality and experience. In the past, we had that experience with Conor [Coady], we had Romain [Saiss], we had a lot of people and we kind of missed that experience, but now we are in a good way.”
Former Wolves goalkeeper Carl Ikeme also suggested recently that Wolves have missed Saiss. Saiss himself has since questioned Wolves’ decision to offload so many experienced stars in one window.
Daniel Podence is probably right about Conor Coady and Romain Saiss, Wolves were stung by their exits early on
Wolves probably did suffer as result of losing the players they did last summer.
While some of those players may have been past their peak, there is no denying all were established Premier League players with good experience under their belts.
Saiss has proven to be a particularly big loss. He was never the world’s greatest defender, but he would always give absolutely everything for the badge.
He was a good solid player, and one of the biggest characters in the dressing room. Ditto Coady.
Thankfully, Wolves addressed the issue in January by bringing in older, more experienced players.
The arrival of Craig Dawson should be massively helpful going forwards.