Maybe the heavens knew something we didn’t when the news burst through the clouds.
Did you ever feel the pain, as it soaked you to the bone?
Nuno was meant to live forever, not fade away in a throwaway tweet on a smartphone.
‘This Sunday will be Nuno Espírito Santo’s final game in charge of Wolves’ were words that cut me to the core. Nuno was a light that would never go out, wasn’t he? Not by mutual agreement. Not yet.
The stars always aligned when it came to Nuno, who was never a rock and roll star in my eyes, but more a Modfather of Molineux. He didn’t just allow us to dream, but demanded we did, before whisking us away on a journey that transcended the here and now.
It was some ride, wasn’t it? Another space and time, between the cracks in the pavement and the constellations in the sky. Where Ruben Neves’ volley still shimmers; amid the floodlights and psychedelia as Jota muscled his way past Shaw. All of the lights!
Mine and Dad’s usual spots in the Billy Wright Stand were more like seats on the Starship Enterprise, and we strapped ourselves in for lift off. That those same seats gather dust these days – with big red crosses slapped across them – is a picture too poignant for words.
Statistically, Nuno’s win percentage was the most successful of any manager in our history, but the results came secondary to the lustre that seemed to envelop him.
The way he’d emasculate an uninformed reporter with those dark, dismissive eyes, or serenade us with his piston-fist pumps beneath those swirling Molineux skies.
My first memory at Pride Park was so clear, when I realised that all that Championship bindweed we’d been knotted up in for so long was about to be cut away by a head coach with razor sharp tactics.
It was an otherworldly experience for three glorious years, until a virus from a dystopian world sucked all the goodness away.
By the end, I’m not sure I was looking at the same manager, who was the shell of the man who caused carnage in a Bristol City directors box and induced an old foe to blood spitting fury in Cardiff. Nuno could barely summon up the energy to kick a water bottle in anger at times, muttering up at the heavens instead after another on-field calamity. Resignation had set in, it seemed.
In the final fixtures, his team was trolling its former self, failing to score in the first half of 30 Premier League games in a damning statistic and generally blighting the Premier League with a tedious style of play that looked no better whatever he tried to do with it. Maybe it was the right time to part on good terms like these, because a bitter ending would have been too depressing to contemplate.
Maybe he was saddled with players he didn’t want? Or we sold the ones he did? Or ‘The Project’ is now a pipe dream?
There’s so many questions that will occupy our minds for now, rather than the fireworks, light shows and that beautiful paradigm we’ve left behind. Better to have burnt out than fade away.
“When I came here it was to build something and create an idea and a philosophy, to build an identity. It’s more than a football pitch – it’s a club, it’s a city…it goes beyond prizes,” he once said.
If history measures Nuno on anything, then I hope it’s this quote and not those feeble set pieces at Goodison, or the conceded kilometres at home to Burnley the other week. Hadn’t we run to stand still?
It mattered little in the grand scheme of things, because Nuno didn’t just build something like he promised, but he constructed it in a galaxy far away – via Belfast, Braga and Barcelona; When streams were ripe and swelled with rain and dreaming was for free.
If we ever revisit that cosmos then I’d be amazed, but that’s not really the point anymore.
Better instead to take each game at a time when the new season gets here, just like the great man always told us to. By which time, the autumn winds will blow chilly and cold.
A love once new has now grown old.
Lyrical old sport. I have nothing to add, but some other words that feel poignant today.
Empty spaces, what are we living for?
Abandoned places, I guess we know the score, on and on
Does anybody know what we are looking for?
Another hero, another mindless crime
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime
Hold the line
Does anybody want to take it anymore?
The show must go on
Inside my heart is breaking
My makeup may be flaking
But my smile, still, stays on
Excellent
I realise now that my admiration for the man has almost made offering opinions on Nuno as a coach almost blasphemous.
He achievements as a coach will be hard to match. His contribution as a man and a leader will never be matched in my eyes.
Fun fact. Kenny Jacketts win percentage was 46%.
Tim your pursuit of mischief in order to make an unpopular point is starting to make your posts almost irrelevant.
Take a step back forget your ridiculous Cutrone related anti Nuno vitriol and wait until the topic shifts to the future.
Just because your posts on Nuno are unpopular doesn’t make them wrong. But they are just wrong.
What? I was just wondering how the other various managers did with win percentage and it turns out he is very high on the list.
Of course, if you consider what division the wins were in, then maybe he shouldn’t be considered one of the greats. But at the same time, he can only beat the team that they are playing.
Just pointing out win percentage alone does not determine who the best coach ever is – financial backing and division also do.
I wish I didn’t have to point this out repeatedly but there are people here, Nunotologists, who apparently are blinded by the light.
Why do you need to completely be the centre of attention.
This is about a ‘real man’
Nuno
Keep your irrelevant thoughts to yourself or just bugger off back to Sandwell.
I’m sorry but I have this obsession with informed public opinion based on facts rather than perception.
Not just regarding Wolves but politically, too.
Why are all of you acting like he died? Did you really think he was going to say forever? Do you really think coaches don’t leave in the middle of their contracts, either wanting to leave or being pushed.
The main thing is, I think this is best for Wolves and that is what matters most to me.
Sounds like at least you’re half self-aware. Your unquenching need to prove yourself right at all times is why anything valid you say will fall on deaf ears.
Conversation is about facts and context. Your unwillingness to recognize that today is a day to give Nuno a send-off for a job well done – that says more about your powers of persuasion than any other facts you find interesting.
Listen, when I told my brother, the one who said sometimes a coach has taken a team as far as he can and needs to be changed, how people on this site were reacting to the news, he just laughed.
Some of you grown men and women should get a little perspective.
None of you – I repeat – NONE OF YOU – can explain to me why you think a coach who last season had us playing 19th place best football in the league half the game and then 3rd best in the second half – deserves to stay on as coach.
You are thinking with your hearts and acting like a bunch of 15-year-olds.
I’m sorry but that is the truth.
There was a poll on twitter (yes, not very official) where close to 40% said he should be let go. Not exactly the amount you would expect from reading the opinions here.
Nobody has any desire and certainly no obligation to explain anything to you Tim.
If you don’t get it then you just don’t get it. Your lack of understanding of the situation is clear and your desire not to try and understand appears to say much about your character.
Your brother appears to have been unfortunate enough to inherit the same genes
Because he is unlike you, a gentleman, humble, professional, doesn’t let his ego get in the way. Just for 24h let the rest of us appreciate a man who has taken the team and more importantly the city to a level no other manager has. Please. Bit of respect for 24h.
Thank you so much for your consideration
Problem is, Tim, stuck as you are in the permafrost waste-lands of Canada you have no idea of the impact Nuno has had on the people if the City of Wolverhampton. This is a man who has given Wulfrunians a sense of ‘self’ again, of pride and a realisation that, indeed, out of darkness does come light.
Tim, ffs, what is your problem ? Why are you always looking to piss people off. You are one of the reasons why myself and other original bloggers don’t come on here anymore. I have spoken on the phone to fellow bloggers today and have been messaging them throughout the game, have you ? No, because it’s all about you and nobody else. I was at Wembley in 1980, I was at Wembley in 1988, I was at Scarborough, I was with the bloggers at Barnsley and Sunderland and Reading and Stoke ,I was at Wembley against Watford, I have been to 73 grounds watching The Wolves have you ? You probably haven’t even set foot in The Molineux in your lifetime. I can honestly say that I can comment on my football club because I have been “going” since 1978. As for the likes of you – you are really starting to piss me and a lot of other people off. If you ever visit the UK put WV1 4QR in your SatNav, it is an amazing place, myself and loads of the people on here have been there many times……………………
Well said mate.
Best just to ignore the tosser Ian he just thrives on the attention don’t give him the oxygen mate.
Ha ha ha – nice one Ian.
Made me chuckle.
Unfortunately we won’t be able to imbibe again at Barnsley next season bud. I watched them crumble at Brentford yesterday.
Allegiance now transferred to West London. Last time I went to Swansea (08/09) the bastards bricked the coaches!
All the best to you both for the summer.
Bedfordshire Old Gold
BOG
Ah, Twitter such a great institution, where nobody is right and nobody is wrong.
If you take this as a measure of what Wolves ‘fans’ think, and I use the term ‘fans’ loosely, then you are seriously disillusioned.
Tosser
Just brilliant mate.
Hi mate. As you’re a bloke, you say Obrigado. I think.
Obrigada is feminine, not having a pop, just kindly pointing it out.
My mistake that one. Fixed.
An absolute Beauty Ben.
As ‘Nuno’, theDOOGooder’s pet fox said:-
“I’m not strictly a Wolf, but I’m still pissed off!”
Just like buses, you wait ages for an official Wolves Blog tribute to Nuno… then three come along at once.
And yours Ben, is a cracker!
It’s a shame that most bloggers have already had their say on the previous thread.
I’m making sure that I have a fresh packet of tissues open for the coverage this afternoon. I think it’s going to get a bit messy.
Are you going to be either inside or outside Molineux?
Mike dean should be disbarred from ever referring another football match.
Even Nuno can’t play against 12 men.
Mike ‘wanker’ dean should have his bollox ripped off and shoved down his throat.
Wolves should have had at least two penalties.
Guys, don’t you see that Tim is a professional wind up merchant? Toss a grenade in every now and then, and then drag people into a debate that often has nothing to do with the original post.
Don’t dislike his posts, don’t reply and just move along.
Either that or he has serious deficits in his social skills, possibly medical, in which case I apologise for mocking the afflicted.
PS – Jackett and Nuno are both decent men as well as good football managers. Best of luck to them both in the future.
Sadly I don’t think Tim is a windup merchant. He is an automaton, utterly lacking in any sort of empathy and his confidence in his own views means he simply can’t just take a back seat for a while and let those of us who have relished the manner in which Nuno had gone about his business grieve a bit. Ben on the other hand is a wordsmith, his pieces always conveying the spirit and romance of the game that are so in danger of being lost. Nuno had a dream, gave us a dream, seemed to live the dream, before this awful season intervened. Even then he acted with grace, charm and huge empathy. Ben captures the man and the spirit. Thanks, Nuno – it’s doubtful your like will pass this way again.
Only Tim will know Peak Wolf, but I’m pretty comfortable with my way of thinking.
Either way we can agree he is causing more harm than good to this blog.
Have a good summer, I hope to be going walking in the Peaks if circumstances allow.
You are so right when you say Tim has done harm to this blog. I just wish Thomas and Ben could remove him as I believe a few of us may return. This is my last post.
I disagree with the majority if not all of Tim’s posts but it’s not our football match and to just walk away with the ball is acting like a spoiled brat and we are much better than that. Aren’t we?
Hope you get to the Peaks, Newt – it’s a glorious place to reflect on the tribulations of the Wanderers. And if you’re in Ashbourne, it might just be my day at the Oxfam bookshop (Andrew)!
What you are forgetting’bard’ is this is an elite super club of Europe.
We are just wolves..
Long may it last
Nuno a wonderful guy and great manager for us, good memories but that game
sums up why we need a change !
I have just read the Johnny Phillips book “Bitten by Wolves” and would recommend it to all the bloggers. It is in my opinion the best book about the club and very well written by a true fan. It is arranged in chapters which focus on different eras of the club, the older you are the more it will jog your memory. Younger folk will enjoy it as it gives deeper insight into recent events.
What we have witnessed today is the end of a chapter and we now have to turn the page. Nuno has been our hero, our role model and ambassador , God knows what we are going to sing about next season but that’s the future and that will be the next chapter. Whoever comes in has big shoes to fill .
Very sad that the only black manager in the Prem was not given respect when some thick headed knobheads decided to boo the taking of the knee. This gesture is merely an acknowledgement that there is a significant inequality within our society. What is wrong with ‘levelling up’ in this respect. Maybe Boris will have a the answers.
Yes, very sad Cheese.
With regard to your last sentence, I doubt it.
Well said Cheese and the fact we also have several black players in our squad beggars belief that they could do this. We have thousands of great fans but unfortunately a few who are basically as thick as pig s**t.
Bang on sir!
Hazell, Berry, Streete, Camara, Ndah, Blake, Ince, Newton, Ebanks-Blake/Landell,
Hazell, Berry, Streete, Ndah, Newton, Ince, Ebanks -Blake & Landell, Batth, Sturridge, Blake, Lescott, Ince,Ikeme, Murray, Camara, Henry.
Hell of a squad, managed by Nuno and Connor.
Heroes, top players, wore the shirt with pride .
As a Wolves fan of 50 years, I have witnessed a lot of lows and few highs but the last 4 years have been a delight. No matter what views are touted, Nuno gave this club it’s self respect back and I for one am truly grateful. A great manager who possesses a social conscience, we were truly blessed.
Hauntingly evocative. Another beautifully written piece, Ben.
I have a lot of unformed thoughts swirling around in my head; some sad, others thankful for the great memories created over the last four years. Maybe I’ll put them down on these pages sometime. But not today.
Nuno, thank you. I for one will be eternally grateful for these last 4 years. And I’m sure you’d agree that winning is important but certainly not the holy grail.
Our club may be a small project in Fosuns portfolio, but it’s a big part of our lives. Nuno certainly gave me pride in WWFC & an abundance of memories I hope I can hold on to for many years to come.
Oh & Tim you do talk bolox….. please feel free to ask Clive if you need that translating in Canadian
Posted the below on the United match report but thought I’d share it here too: Nuno had a dream – and he made us dream.
Let’s put aside for a moment the footballing arguments. This is a humble, warm and good man who gave his all for this club and the people of the city, and beyond. That much was clear during those emotional scenes at the final whistle.
I think today we should forget the turgid football of this season, whether Coady can play in a back four and if Silva will ever be the real deal. Those debates will rightly be had, and it’s now for someone else to decide.
Nuno has gone and what a journey he gave us. It wasn’t good this season, most of us will agree. There were big mitigating factors but we’ve still been poor. Perhaps Nuno deserves credit for keeping this team out of a relegation battle.
Nuno is in some ways a victim of his own success. Before his arrival fans under 40 had never known the club established in the top flight. Hell, we were on the pitch celebrating a last gasp escape from relegation. Perhaps because for the first time in a while it was boring being a Wolves fan that’s why we started to get restless. But it could have been so much worse. I am personally not against a fresh start. Things change, the club needs to evolve and keep moving forwards. And if things had gone south next season no one would have wanted to see Nuno get hounded out. A man of his class does not deserve that. Maybe it’s fitting for all concerned that this wonderful and memorable chapter ends here. If Fosun eventually get us to where they want to, Nuno will be the man who laid the foundations. Thank you Nuno and farewell.
A quick note on the match. Struggling to understand the Mike Dean criticism, it was a clear penalty. Granted it wouldn’t have looked that way in the ground but it was clear on the replay. Semedo finally found the net, the man Nuno was desperate to sign to improve the team. The irony doubtless won’t have escaped him.
Not sure the criticism of Mr Dean comes just from the penalty Rich. Or even just from this game. I feel it stems from an oft repeated pattern of poor decisions bordering on blatant anti-Wolves bias over many, many games.
Not for nothing the groans of disbelief from Wolves fans everywhere when his name comes up as match referee.
Nice finish, with a Simon & Garfunkle lyric Ben !
Unfortunately, I think another may be more apt, ” Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again “.
I had tears in my eyes and that’s never happened for a previous manager and iv’e seen a few since Ronnie Allen! God bless you Nuno, you took us to the premier and beyond.