With Wolverhampton Wanderers gaining themselves an advantage in the race for seventh place in the Premier League table as we took victory over Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday, plenty of Wolves fans will be forgiven for looking optimistically ahead to the future.
Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has talked down a European adventure for next season as it relies on what happens elsewhere, and it probably wasn’t our aim at the start of the campaign as he claimed, but that doesn’t mean he’s not enjoying the ride.
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the game, pundit Paul Merson tipped Wolves to potentially challenge for a top four spot next season if we continue to progress as we have done over the last few years.
On Soccer Saturday’s coverage (27/4 – 2.43pm) he explained that for him, all we had to lose was our element of inconsistency when facing the presumed lesser sides in the top flight, and if that clicked who knew what could happen.
“That’s been Everton for me for the last I don’t know how many years – inconsistency. One minute they’ll be up there and the next minute it’s a five out of ten. It’s a bit like Wolves as well, they do well against the good teams and when it comes against the lesser ones, I don’t know if it’s (a case of) ‘we’ve just got to turn up,’ but everybody wants to finish the season well and it’ll give them that little bit of faith. These teams now have got a chance of breaking into the top four and I say that because Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea at the moment are dropping back, they’re not going further and further away. You never know, someone’s only got to have a good start next season, put a bit of pressure on and you never know.”
Given the more cautious amongst us are wondering about second season syndrome now we’re not an unknown quantity anymore, I certainly wouldn’t expect this to happen next season, our aim should be to consolidate as a top ten side and if things go well for us, look for natural Europa League qualification as the next step.
