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Wolverhampton Wanderers have set the top bar for any promoted league team in which they fill this gap with the Premier League.
Molineux took a seventh consecutive position in the elite after earning the second-place name in 2018.
Of course, not all promoted clubs will gain advantages from the fosun International currency or the influence of a world-renowned agent in Jorge Mendes.
However, there are still lessons to be learned from what Wolves have done and aspects of their approach which could be applied at Leeds United.
We spoke to Alex Dicken, Wolves writer at our sister site BirminghamLive, for the lowdown on how exactly they have so quickly established themselves in the top flight.
A key thing the wolves tried to do, and where they had more good luck than some of the other teams promoted, was to recruit early in the summer window. Nuno [Holy Spirit] is someone who may take some time to fully accept a player as true, so it was imperative to put fast signings in play in that first summer in the Premier League. It’s something the wolves couldn’t do last year and their two most important contracts didn’t work accordingly.
Wolves have trusted Jorge Mendes a lot when it comes to recruitment. Not all of his firms are similar to Gestifute (Mendes’ agency), however, Mendes is a key advisor to the owners of Nuno and Fosun in relation to transfers.
The first 4 wolf players to have signed in 2018, Rui Patricio, Jonny Castro Otto, Joao Moutinho and Raúl Jiménez, are all customers of Mendes, so it is clear that plans have been made for some time.
Leander Dendoncker and Adama Traoré, both under the age of 23 at the time, also arrived and have become key protagonists. Hiring players with a margin of progression is also a key and successful strategy under Fosun’s ownership.
Anyway, the wolves weren’t a million miles away and I think their 2017/18 team is the most talented the championship has ever seen. It is clear that players like Willy Boly, Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota were too smart at this point and counted that the Wolves would spend only one season there when they agreed to sign.
Much of the team that won the Championship is still at Wolves with Conor Coady, Matt Doherty, Romain Saiss, Boly, Neves and Jota, all regular starters in a team that has reached the Europa League quarter-finals.
Keeping the core of their title-winning team and adding more high-quality players, all of which Nuno had researched extensively before signing, has allowed Wolves to very quickly become one of the Premier League’s elite.
This is not necessarily a mistake as wolves still can’t compete with the Big Six for the players, however, Nuno would naturally welcome a team with more depth. It is largely based on a core of 16 players, supported by organic teenagers to bring the general to 20.
This lack of intensity in the team is the main difference between wolves and groups without delay above them and anything they want to face a true contender.
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It seems like a cliché, but even the smallest of the briefs is mercilessly punished in the Premier League. I watch two games against Watford and Huddersfield Town at home in 2018/19 and the four goals conceded through the Wolves are not the type you see in the league. The wolves have made no obvious mistakes in the preparation of each goal, but Premier League players are incredibly ruthless.
Leeds’ aerial play has inspired me, however, I would expect the most sensitive groups in the premier league to use much more press than any team in the league has controlled against Marcelo Bielsa in each of the last two seasons.