Worse than Derby? Can Wolves avoid the unwanted record?

It has been 226 days, three managers, two sporting directors, one technical director and 37 goals conceded since Wolves last won in the Premier League.

Rooted to the bottom with just two points and 12 away from safety, their top flight future looks bleak.

Their seven successive league defeats equals their longest losing top flight run in the Premier League era and is only one short of their all-time top flight run of defeats from 1981-82. In the current sequence, they have not even scored a league goal since 26 October.

The only Wolves player to score in November was Yerson Mosquera – an own goal in the abject defeat at Fulham.

There is little expectation or even hope they will survive and even boss Rob Edwards, in charge for three games, appeared to suggest the priorities are already shifting.

“We don’t want to die like that,” he said after the Forest game. “That’s going to be the message now going forward – we don’t want to go out with a whimper.”

It’s important to distinguish this is a completely different Premier League era to Derby’s, so the comparisons may feel unfair.

It is not a problem purely based on this season either. Since successive seventh placed finishes in 2018-19 and 2019-20 Wolves have slowly slipped down the table.

In the past five seasons they have finished 13th, 10th, 13th, 14th and 16th, having needed to replace the manager at least twice to save themselves.

Edwards is the fifth head coach in four years and third in less than 12 months after Gary O’Neil and Vitor Pereira’s sackings.

The revolving door of managers has coincided with major changes in the squad as Wolves have sold and failed to replace their star players.

Raul Jimenez, Ruben Neves, Adama Traore, Pedro Neto, Max Kilman, Conor Coady and Joao Moutinho were all crucial to success under Nuno Espirito Santo and reaching the Europa League quarter-finals in 2020. The summer exits of Nelson Semedo, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Matheus Cunha are also still being felt.

The five who arrived in the summer, excluding Jorgen Strand Larsen after he made his loan from Celta Vigo permanent, had no Premier League experience and are taking too long to adapt.

Replacement Edwards has already admitted they need more know-how, which will be an aim in January – although who they are able to sign will largely depend on how far adrift they have fallen.

There have been concerns about the squad’s ability to gel given the number of nationalities and their fitness levels, with boss Edwards eager to get them to the levels he wants to play with his levels of intensity.

The Derby side of 2007-08 had six points at this stage of the season and striker Robert Earnshaw, part of the Rams’ squad, knows how badly it can go wrong.

He told BBC Sport: “At Derby, the politics around the club disrupted what was going on in the changing room, on the pitch. It was almost as if everyone gave up, it was 20 games to go and it was like ‘we’re never going to do it’. There was all this negative talk.

“It was not an accident the team finished bottom and struggled for points. The club almost relegated itself. There was too much politics going on.

“You can relegate yourself based on how you think. If you come in on Monday morning it’s heavier to pick yourself up and heavier to look past the results.”

“You’ve sold the team, now sell the club” is a regular chant at Molineux from the South Bank as they direct their anger at owners Fosun and executive chairman Jeff Shi.

That will not change Fosun’s mindset. If Wolves are relegated they will remain and there are no immediate plans to sell, though they are open to minority investment into Fosun Sports Group, having spoken to former Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor in October.

Former director of player recruitment and development Matt Jackson was also promoted to technical director last month, a move met with scepticism by fans who want to see wholesale change.

Wolves are winless from their opening 14 league games, as they were in the 1983-84 season.

However, the all-time English record for a top-flight winless start is held by Bolton, who failed to win any of their first 22 games in 1902-03. Unsurprisingly, they finished bottom and were relegated from the First Division.

Sheffield United’s Premier League record of 17 winless games is also under threat.

Wolves will have to beat either United, Arsenal or Brentford to avoid equalling it before ending the year with trips to Liverpool and Old Trafford.

The record for the lowest points tally ever recorded at Christmas in the Premier League belongs to the Blades who had two points in 2020, though that was after 14 games following the pandemic delayed the start to the season.

Sunderland hold the record low for a season which started in August with five points from 17 games.

West Brom were bottom at Christmas in 2004 and eight points from safety but, under Bryan Robson, became the first team to survive from that position.

Earnshaw scored 11 goals in 18 starts to keep the Baggies up in that campaign, but feels Wolves are lacking the quality to make a difference.

He said: “Those moments from top players which change games, in an instant, in five or six seconds – Wolves have not got that at all.

“They can’t score goals. You should be creating four or five good opportunities every half and they can’t buy a goal because there’s no quality there.