Insider issues ‘dramatic’ Wolves claim after seven deals done
It is a “risk” for Wolves to allow Julen Lopetegui to bring in seven members of backroom staff but they will have to be a “dramatic failure” for the team not to improve.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Wolves confirmed on Wednesday (7 December) that they had added fitness Borja De Alba Alonso to Lopetegui’s team after six appointments were made last month.
The 56-year-old’s staff include Pablo Sanz (assistant head coach), Juan Peinado (assistant coach), Oscar Caro (fitness coach), Edu Rubio (first-team coach), Fran Garagarza (technical advisor) and Daniel Lopetegui (performance analyst).
“I think there’s always a risk regardless of who you bring in and whether that’s player, manager or backroom staff,” Dinnery told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“You can go out and do your due diligence and understand everything that’s gone before but this is a unique environment for the individual and you don’t know how they are going to respond or set up and how that will be brought about by the players.
“You hope, if you’ve done your research, that it’s going to go smoothly and that transition goes as smoothly as possible.
“Is it a gamble? Of course it is, but he will have laid it out on the line in those initial discussions about coming into the club.
“It’s important that if you are going to invest in somebody that you don’t just invest in the individual but everything that they believe in, the team they need around them.
“He’s worked with these people, they understand him, how he works and what he needs to be delivered. They’ll be able to deliver his message as he wants.
“Let’s not forget, Wolves haven’t been great in recent times so it will take some dramatic failure of behalf of everybody if Wolves drop from where they’ve been the past 12 months.”
In other news, an ex-Fifa official has lambasted the PGMOL after a landmark Wolves development as a “fine and suspension” should have been issued.