Dean Saunders drops wild Wolverhampton Wanderers claim that's caused a real stir | OneFootball

Former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Dean Saunders has dropped a claim live on air with talkSPORT that has caused a real stir in football...

Dean Saunders was one of the most prolific British strikers of the late 1980s and 1990s, as well as manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers back in 2013.

The Welsh international scored goals across spells with clubs including Liverpool, Aston Villa, Derby County, and Sheffield United, earning more than 70 caps for Wales and building a reputation as a hard-working and intelligent forward. However, today, Saunders is best known as a regular pundit and presenter on places like talkSPORT.

Although he never played for them as a player, the 61-year-old's association with Wolves comes from his brief managerial spell at Molineux in 2013.

Saunders left Doncaster Rovers to take charge of Wolves during a turbulent period, but won just a handful of matches and was unable to prevent the club suffering a second successive relegation.

They dropped from the Championship into League One. He was dismissed shortly after the season ended, making his tenure one that many Wolves supporters remember with frustration. In fact, that relegation was their last one before 2025/26, with the club back in the Championship for the first time since 2018.

Dean Saunders makes bold claim on Wolverhampton Wanderers

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Jamie O'Hara and Saunders spoke on talkSPORT earlier today and O'Hare claimed they wouldn't win La Liga, which Saunders responded by stating that "they'd have a chance".

He said: "Do you think PSG would win the Premier League? No chance. Wolves were at the bottom of the league in the Premier League, right? Wolves would have a chance of winning any other league.

"If Wolves were in all the other leagues, they'd have a chance of winning it. Wolves' team got relegated this year, they're all internationals, it's the strongest league, so they'd have a chance. They'd have a chance at winning it.

"They would. They can spend more money than most clubs in Europe. Alright, I tell you what, they're playing Bayern Munich right now. What you've got to remember, with Wolves getting relegated, if they got their team in order, at full strength and confident, they could go into any league and challenge in Britain.

"I've played abroad. This is the hardest league in the world. Playing abroad, you beat someone 6-0 and we'd be coasting at 6-0. You don't get games like that in the Premier League. The bottom team in the Premier League can beat the top team at any point.

"Do you think PSG would win the Premier League if they were in it? You think they could grind the season? No chance. Not good enough at the back. It's a battle every week. Going at people like they do every week, they'd get mugged.

"Wolves are a rich European club. They're a poor Premier League club. But in Europe, they spend and they're worth [a lot], they're known as a rich club in Europe. The amount of money they spend on players, they're rich in Europe.

"But they're not rich in the Premier League. They're one of the smallest spenders. To try and win the Premier League, it's an unbelievable achievement. You're turning up against teams and their whole squad are internationals every week. That doesn't happen in Portugal, doesn't happen in Italy. You have a few rollovers."

Dean Saunders has a point and it's why Wolves will be desperate to gain promotion at the first time of asking

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Even if Saunders has gone too far with his take regarding Wolves, he has a point about the fact the financial gap between the Premier League and the rest of Europe's major leagues continues to widen, with even lower-table English clubs generating revenues that often exceed those of established sides in Spain, Germany, Italy, and France.

Lucrative domestic and international broadcast deals, combined with incredibly powerful commercial income streams, have given Premier League clubs spending power that is increasingly difficult for their continental rivals to match. That advantage is perhaps best illustrated in UEFA's secondary competitions.

English clubs have consistently dominated the Conference League in particular, with every Premier League representative reaching at least the semi-finals and several going on to lift the trophy. The depth of quality and squad investment available to English sides is often simply beyond the level of most opponents they encounter in those tournaments.

It's why the riches of the league are so desired and why Wolves will be desperate to get out of the division at the first attempt, even though there are a number of huge names and ambitious clubs in the Championship in 2026/27. It won't be easy for them at all from that perspective but it is a must if you are to grow and possibly compete in such competitions.