MusaWolves have certainly landed on their feet with the appointment of Vitor Pereira – and the manager has now revealed he gave the club a warning when he was in talks to replace Gary O’Neil.
Wolves finished 16th in the 2024/25 Premier League table, but Vitor Pereira arrived midway through the campaign and turned things around.
The Portuguese arrived from Al-Shabab and, given the number of clubs Pereira has played for in his career, the appointment was bound to raise eyebrows.
But Pereira has done a fantastic job so far and fans are now very optimistic about the future. Wolves fans have been delighted with Pereira’s passion, with some even believing he could bring back the good times not seen since the days of Nuno Espirito Santo.
One of the most pressing issues for Pereira when he first arrived was to breathe new life into the players.
They were under siege and emotions were running high.
The situation was not good and Pereira knew he had a lot of work ahead of him – and he needed a lot of reassurance before he agreed to take the job.
Vitor Pereira insists he had everyone’s trust before agreeing to become Wolves manager
Pereira became Wolves manager on December 19, with Wolves in the relegation zone.
Wolves looked at a number of other managers, including David Moyes, Graham Potter and Sergio Conceicao.
But none of them wanted the job.
There was certainly a lot of work to be done – but Pereira says he believed in the quality of the Wolves squad.
While he felt comfortable with the players he would be working with, Pereira admitted he had warned Wolves that he needed the players’ full trust if he was to take over.
In a recent interview with Marco (published in the print edition, 22/06), he said: “The most important thing was to regain the confidence of the players. I warned them: ‘If he didn’t see that I had the trust of the group, I wouldn’t have signed.'”
Vitor Pereira’s authority is impressive
In addition to getting results, Pereira has said almost all the right things so far at Wolves, which is another reason to be optimistic about the future.
He has always been very confident and speaks with authority.
You get the feeling that he will not tolerate any nonsense from those above him, which is refreshing.
Fans would like to hope that his affection will get him what he wants.
In the past, we have seen how Gary O’Neil and Bruno Lage did not exactly get the support they could have.
Lage even admitted at one point that he wished he had been more decisive at Wolves to give him the tools he needs to progress. Let’s hope Pereira doesn’t miss out on these tools.
Musa
