Things are going rather well for Wolves at the moment. The midlands side are flying high at the top of the Championship are playing some great football. If a Wolves fan casts their mind back to February 2012 they will recall things were rather the opposite of good. Sure, the club was in the Premier League, but relegation looked certain and long time manager Mick McCarthy had just been sacked. Wolves decided to promote his assistant, Terry Connor, to the post after Alan Curbishley (of all people) turned them down. The result of this appointment: Wolves were relegated to the Championship.
Connor had been assistant at Wolves for four years and was by all accounts a lovely bloke. In fact Connor had been at the club in some capacity since 1999, so was clearly a popular figure. Surely such a well liked figure could inspire Wolves to safety and secure Premier League status once again. Well in a word? No. No he couldn’t. Despite his best efforts Terry Connor has one of the worst managerial records the Premier League has seen over 13 games and in fact it would be mathematically impossible for his win percentage to be any lower. So what happened?
The first game under Connor was arguably the best one as Wolves came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Newcastle. The month of March is what really ensured relegation as Wolves suffered five straight defeats, conceding seventeen goals and scoring just three. After collecting one point from their first three matches in April it meant that if Wolves did not beat Manchester City at home they would be relegated. Of course they lost and thus they were relegated. Connor’s side picked up two points from their last three games, not that it mattered, as Wolves slid back into the Championship with Connor having zero games in thirteen.
Connor was clearly the wrong man for the job. A perennial number two, he never should have been appointed and the Wolves board should have actually tried to get a proper manager in to save their season. Since the Wolves debacle Connor has re-united with Mick McCarthy as the two now look to try and steer Ipswich Town back into the Premier League. Wolves’ relegation should be a lesson to all football clubs: never, ever promote your inexperienced assistant manager. It usually ends very, very badly and there are so many examples of it its bewildering that boards still do it.