When Fosun international purchased Wolves in 2016, there was only one man they wanted for the job. Kenny Jackett had done a brilliant job steering the club back to the Championship after a ridiculous relegation to League One, but things had gone stale and the double promotion hadn’t happened.
In truth, he was never going to get the chance to try again, as the new owners wanted their own man in. Under the guidance of unofficial club adviser Jorge Mendes, Spain’s U21s manager Julen Lopetegui was targeted as the man to get Wolves back to the Premier League.
After a positive interview period, it seemed only a matter of time, only for the Spanish national team to come calling at the last minute. The choice then was obvious and Wolves endured a crazy season under Italian legend Walter Zenger and then Paul Lambert, until the Nuno era began.
After scaling the heights of European football once more, Nuno’s time too came to an end, and he was replaced by the relatively inexperienced Bruno Lage. In all honesty, that season was great until investment was withheld in the January window which led to the wheels falling off.
The following season started as badly as the last ended, and Lage was sacked after playing star midfielder Ruben Neves in central defence away at West Ham. With a replacement not on the cards, the club turned to academy coach Steve Davis whose last job in mens football was in non-league.
This backstory may seem unnecessary, but it is important to put into context the job Lopetegui did at Wolves. When he was appointed, six and a bit years after that first approach, the club was going down.
Rock bottom of the league, mutiny in the stands and players who had given up. All that was required was to stay in the league. Six players came in to save the day, yet it was the steel and drive injected into the ones already here that was more impressive to me.
The style of football wasn’t brilliant, but it did not need to be. Needs must at times like that and although there were a few batterings contained within that second half of the season, Wolves’ form since he took over was 8th best in the league.
And then comes the summer of 2003 and the chaos returns. Murmurs of discontent started leaking out from within the camp that the goalposts had been moved and there would be yet again no money to spend. This would not be resolved until Lopetegui left on the eve of the season. A year on and it would seem that he was in fact telling the truth all along, after current manager Gary O’Neil has suffered the same fate.
The three pre-season games before Lopetegui left though were interesting. Wolves had looked more expansive than before, with faster passing and more movement. Wolves played Man Utd away in the first game of the season where O’Neil received all the praise for this brave new way of playing. In truth, he had been there for four days.
I believe that last season would have been entertaining with Lopetegui in charge, but that is not a thought shared with all Wolves fans who see him as a stroppy arrogant figure. Maybe he is both, but he gets results. As for Max Kilman, when was first linked with West Ham, it seemed to us like a bit of a sideways move.
Now we know that the Hammers have won a competition much more recently than Wolves, the stadium is twice the size and half the media support the club. But Wolves and West Ham, in my opinion, have occupied a similar level in the pecking order of English football.
A move to a similar esteemed rival did not seem fitting of a club captain, and then came the price tag. To get £40m for a player who cost almost nothing was way too good to turn down, or so we thought.
The truth is there has always been a section of the Wolves support who never rated Kilman. Maybe because he’s not a fancy name and did not cost a ridiculous amount of money, or maybe because he wasn’t one of our own, even though he was signed for the academy initially.
We will never really know, but one thing is for sure, these people have serious Big Yellow Taxi vibes now. To go back to the beginning is to understand just why Max Kilman was so beloved by the majority though, because in truth that’s what he was.
When the best manager of the last 40 years rates a kid signed from non league football so highly, you stand up and listen. Yes his debut was all of a minute at the end of a game when nothing mattered, but it was symbolic.
This was a guy who would be trusted to play in the back three, in a team venturing into Europe for the first time in a generation, and doing it well. A back three of Bennett, Coady and Boly had served Wolves well, but with injuries and the extra games of the Europa League, others would get their opportunity. Max took his.
Yet it wouldn’t be until the awful Covid season of 2020/21 where Kilman really shone. With no fans in the grounds, everyone was forced to listen to how he used to play Futsal every single week, until it became a bit of a running joke online.
It was this grounding in the technical sister product of football though which would benefit Kilman the most. For a guy of his height, close control and quick feet isn’t what you expect. Yet this coupled with his natural physical frame and confidence meant we had a ball playing central defender not seen since the late Dean Richards graced Molineux in the 90s.
Bringing the ball out of defence isn’t something that sits well with the ‘proper football men’ crowd of Wolverhampton, yet Kilman did so with ease. It was this coupled with his positional sense that endeared him to not just the fans, but incoming management too when he was named captain just over 12 months ago, after the departure of living legend Ruben Neves.
The thing about Max is that he is a quiet soul, publicity isn’t something he seeks and this brought into question how he would lead the team following such vocal on pitch generals as Coady and Neves before him. Yet it was his calmness that was needed, he led by example more than screaming and even though he did not have his best season in 23/24, he was still superb.
West Ham have gained a quiet leader of men, a deceptively skillful footballer and a brilliant human being. He will be missed at Molineux more than we will know.
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