Kieran Trippier's Journey Back to the Championship with Wolves
Kieran Trippier strolls in straight from training, Wolves vest still clinging to him, club sliders squeaking on the floor at Compton Park. He drops into his seat and the conversation quickly heads to the only place it can: the week that stunned the club.
Three days after he signed, the manager he had named as a key reason for dropping into the Championship, Rob Edwards, was sacked. As Edwards walked out, a deal for César Peixoto was being rushed through.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie, I wasn’t expecting it,” Trippier says. “But it’s the club’s decision. I had good chats with Rob, of course, but I’m here to play for Wolves. There are many surprises in football and that certainly was a surprise, I’m not going to deny that. But I just cracked on, I was with my kids on holiday, training in Mallorca and just looking forward to day one in pre-season.”
The shock created a swirl of noise around him. Stories that he was already trying to tear up his contract. Whispers that he wanted out before he had even pulled on the shirt.
“I’ve read it all: that I was looking to rip my contract up, and all this nonsense,” he says. “I was just looking forward to reporting back to Wolves. I don’t know where it even came from to be honest, that I was looking to rip my contract up – it certainly didn’t come from me, otherwise you would have heard it from me, that’s just the player that I am.”
It is classic Trippier: blunt, unfussy, and entirely comfortable with the scrutiny. That attitude has travelled with him from club to club. From Tottenham under Mauricio Pochettino, to Atlético Madrid under Diego Simeone, to Newcastle under Eddie Howe. La Liga winner in Spain, Champions League finalist with Spurs, Carabao Cup winner and Champions League qualifier on Tyneside. Four major tournaments with England, playing every minute on the road to the Euro 2024 final.
Now he is back where his senior career really hardened: the second tier. Twelve years on from promotion with Burnley, he is about to start Wolves’ Championship opener against Blackburn on Friday. The contrast is stark. Last September he was facing Barcelona under the lights at St James’ Park. This autumn, it will be Bolton at Molineux.
“I’m not ashamed to go to the Championship because I played in it for many years,” he says, drifting back to his first taste of the division, defending alongside Darren Moore as a teenager at Barnsley. “I had a good chat with Eddie Howe and Ross Wilson [Newcastle’s sporting director] and made my decision at the end of the season that I wanted to try something new. There were a few [interested] clubs but it was important for me that I was close to my children.”
Home is still Manchester. The league, he knows inside out. He remembers coming here as the enemy, part of a Burnley side that won 2-1 at Molineux in the penultimate game of 2012-13, a result that all but sent Wolves to League One and pulled Burnley clear of trouble.
Those memories have shaped his message in a dressing room packed with players who have never felt the Championship grind.
“I’ve been speaking to my teammates because the majority of them have never played in the Championship, so it’s important for myself and the lads who have to help them and try and make them understand that it’s going to be difficult.
“I’ve just said: it’s relentless, because it is … and it’s totally different to the Premier League. Going to Lincoln away is going to be a difficult game, but they’re good lads who have listened to me, Tommy [Doyle], Adam [Armstrong]. The lads will be ready.”
This is his first in-depth interview since signing a two-year deal, with an option for another 12 months. Before committing, he worked the phones. Tommy Doyle, Conor Coady, John Ruddy, Sam Johnstone – all sounded out, some of them while they were on holiday together in Turkey. Trippier wanted “the insides of the club” before he jumped.
The Edwards exit still looms over the summer, landing only a month after André extended his contract and two days after Raúl Jiménez returned to a fanbase already buzzing over Trippier’s arrival. Yet the 35-year-old is just as well placed to talk about another departure: Howe’s from Newcastle after four and a half transformative years.
“He helped the club stay in the Premier League, twice qualified for the Champions League, won a trophy, but the most important thing he did was reconnecting the supporters with the team,” Trippier says. “I was told before the [Saudi Arabia-led] takeover that it was not a good place to be – the fans were against the owners, the board etc – but when the new owners came in, and the manager, he [Howe] connected everyone, just like Gareth Southgate did with England.”
So, statue territory?
“He’s won a trophy, hasn’t he?” Trippier shoots back with a grin. “But that’s not for me to decide … the parade was incredible, the big banner of the manager showed the love the supporters had for him and still have now. When I first went there, it was a tough place [to play], especially after getting beat by Cambridge [in the FA Cup third round], but maybe that was a blessing, really, so we could just focus on [staying in] the Premier League … he will go down in history there, for sure. I’m gutted to see him go.”
His mind flicks from Tyneside to the biggest stage of all. England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina, and a low block that finally gave way late on. Trippier has lived that scenario before, under Simeone, and usually with a very different ending.
“I’ve been in that position many, many times with Simeone – I could name 30 games when he’s done it and we’ve managed to see it out, typical Simeone for you. He’s the master of the dark arts and seeing out games. Thomas Tuchel has been in that position many, many times, won a Champions League trophy with Chelsea, did unbelievable with Bayern Munich … it just didn’t happen. We were against one of the greatest players ever who can flick a switch,” he says of Lionel Messi, clicking his fingers. “I’ve played against him many times where he just walks for 60 minutes, but then he can score a hat-trick. That’s just the magic of him.”
Back at Wolves, the new man in the dugout is less familiar to English audiences. Peixoto arrives from Gil Vicente with a solid reputation in Portugal, but little fanfare here. Not that Trippier needed to dust off his Spanish.
Peixoto’s English is strong. The language barrier that once saw Trippier use his son as an interpreter in Madrid – “When the postman used to come in Madrid, I used to get my son to answer because he was fluent,” he laughs – has not followed him to the Midlands.
So what has?
“Really demanding. Honest. On the training field he is 100mph, nuts – in a good way – but he’s really, really demanding and I think that’s what we need as players if we want to be successful. He’s very demanding, like Pochettino and Simeone. He has his own rules: don’t break his trust, don’t be late. I wouldn’t like to be on his bad side, let’s put it that way.”
Trippier turns 36 in September, twice the age of Mateus Mané, the bright Wolves prospect he marked last season while at Newcastle and who is expected to light up this campaign. The age gap does not bother him. If anything, he relishes it.
“I feel good, I feel probably in the best shape I’ve been in for many, many years. I’m not as fast as I used to be but I always believe I am clever and fast up here,” he says, tapping his temples. “I feel like I’ve still got many years left in the tank.”
Wolves see him as a coup, a statement that they are not planning to linger in the Championship. Trippier recognises the familiar pattern.
“It’s similar to when I went to Newcastle, when I left Atlético Madrid … There were a lot of eyebrows raised, but throughout my whole career I’ve had no regrets.”
He is part of Peixoto’s leadership group now, one of the voices charged with steering a squad that will carry a target on its back from the first whistle.
“Going into the Blackburn game, the first game of the Championship season, all eyes will be on us,” he says. “When teams get relegated from the Premier League, everybody wants to beat them. It was a tough year for Wolves last year, but this season is a new season, like a reset. The reality is now we’re in the Championship, so you have to forget what happened last season and look forward, be positive. Our goal has to be to go straight back up to the Premier League.”
The Premier League is gone, for now. The expectation is not.
