Watch Wolves vs Manchester United on Monday Night Football from 7pm
Monday 19 August 2019 18:09, UK
Barely 12 months ago they were Premier League new boys, but Raul Jimenez believes Wolves can upset the establishment this season and break into the top six in their second season back in the big time.
Wolves are not like most promoted clubs. Plucking Porto fringe players in the Championship and adding seasoned top-flight professionals like Rui Patricio, one of Europe's finest goalkeepers, after promotion is not the penchant of many Premier League new boys.
They have turned heads with the names they have attracted to the Black Country over the past few years, but there's more to it than that.
While promotion colleagues Fulham were left searching for the receipt after a £100m bill on chasing survival backfired last summer, Wolves' smart personnel additions ensured they were never in danger of doing the same.
It proves little more than that money isn't everything in football, but then what is? Astute management, strong recruitment, and of a clear gameplan play a big part.
Wolves are blessed with all three, and even though their seventh-placed finish in their first season back in the top flight may have been less surprising than for many newly promoted clubs, it was still beyond most reasonable predictions made last August.
Another 12 months on, now no one would be surprised if Wolves go again. Striker Raul Jimenez, who turned his loan move from Benfica permanent over the summer, wants more, though. The project sold to the 28-year-old convinced him to leave a career in the Champions League with the Primeira Liga champions a year ago, and he believes it's still far from completion.
Jimenez told Sky Sports: "Why can't we get into the top six this season? We have to think we can do it. We have the coach, the players and the set-up to do it. I want to play my part and get us there.
"It was never a difficult decision to join Wolves. I saw the project, I saw what it was going to be, very different to Atletico [Madrid] and Benfica in the Champions League, but everyone outside the club thought we were just hoping to stay up. We deserved to be in the top half though.
"Last season was very good but we think we can do better. We have ambition as a group to achieve it."
An early statement of intent on Monday Night Football against Manchester United, one side they are eyeing to oust from that established group, would get the wheels turning on converting that ambition into reality.
On the pitch, the two clubs' styles are both grounded in the language of power and pace, but off it they could not be more different.
United's grappling to develop a philosophy has lurched from extreme to extreme since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement. Though the arrival of Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka may herald a new dawn, the absence of a sporting director remains the elephant in the room.
Things are much simpler 75 miles down the M6. When manager Nuno Espirito Santo arrived at Molineux in the summer of 2017, he soon decided his vision would be best realised by lining up in a structured 3-4-3, a formation rarely tried, let alone successful, in the English second tier.
A year later, Wolves were promoted. Another 12 months on on, they're in Europe. Aside from tweaking their attacking options to add an extra man in midfield, little changes, whether facing Manchester City or Bristol City.
Even against Armenian minnows Pyunik on Thursday night, Wolves had 43 per cent of the ball. Soaking up pressure and hurting you on the break is always the game plan. Their uniformity could be a weakness, but Nuno has made it a strength.
"He is very strict but he likes to work and he focuses on the right things to make us successful," Jimenez says glowingly of Wolves' most successful manager since John Barnwell in the early 1980s. "I find it brilliant having a style which is defined.
"It's good to be able to be the same no matter who you're playing, knowing what you're doing, having consistency. And we're going to keep doing it."
