Wolves' Summer Gamble: Big Squad, Big Questions

Wolverhampton Wanderers head into the new season with numbers on their side – but not necessarily the profile many expected.

On BBC Radio WM, commentator Mike Taylor and former Wolves striker David Kelly pulled apart the club’s summer transfer business, focusing on a squad that looks deep, but not yet obviously battle-hardened for the Championship grind.

The headcount is high. Competition for places will not be a problem. What nags, though, is whether there is enough proven Championship know-how in the dressing room to turn that volume into a promotion charge.

“This might be a promotion squad – the only thing that we can say for the moment, is it is not what we were anticipating,” Taylor said, underlining the sense of surprise at how the window unfolded.

The club have recruited, reshaped and refreshed, but not quite along the lines many supporters had sketched out in their minds at the start of the summer.

Taylor stressed that unpredictability cuts both ways. “That doesn’t mean it will necessarily be bad. We’ll know that in a few weeks, but it is not what we were expecting. It just isn’t.”

So Wolves stand on the brink of the season with a large, intriguing group: rich in options, short on guarantees. Promotion contender or work in progress? The answer is coming – and it will arrive quickly.