Cesar Peixoto facing 'major issue' at Wolves | OneFootball

Wolverhampton Wanderers have started their summer in fairly bizarre fashion and now the pressure is on Cesar Peixoto at Molineux.

Wolverhampton Wanderers are embarking upon their Championship return this summer and it has already proved to be a tumultuous transition from the Premier League.

After a very disappointing Premier League campaign, that had appeared to be inevitable after a couple of years of seemingly circling the drain in the top-flight, Wolves have now eventually plummeted into the second-tier for the first time since 2017.

The midlanders have already experienced a busy summer with Ladislav Krejci’s initial loan move from Girona being made a permanent deal before the signings of the experienced Kieran Trippier and Raul Jimenez.

Trippier, arriving from Newcastle United, and Jimenez, returning from Fulham, have to be deemed as coups, despite their age, for a team seeking to challenge for promotion straight back to the Premier League.

However, that mood of optimism has been brought down a touch by the surprising departure of Rob Edwards, who joined the club in November.

Cesar Peixoto must get the players on board at Wolves

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Rob Edwards was not universally loved by Wolves supporters but his departure, and the shock it has caused, would indicate an unsettled build-up for this summer behind the scenes.

That is especially the case given reports of Kieran Trippier reportedly considering his options, having only signed on at Molineux earlier this month.

Now, following the appointment of Cesar Peixoto to replace Edwards in the dugout in Wolverhampton, FLW’s Wolves Fan Pundit Thomas Woodhall has explained what Peixoto will need to do at the club as a priority.

Thomas says: “If media sources are true, I would say Peixoto’s first issue is going to be settle the players.

“With everything that has gone on, there is going to be a lot of talk between them, there’s going to be a lot of upset between them.

“He’s going to have to get them in and essentially sell himself to the players.

“If they were ready and in full belief of what Rob Edwards was doing, his system and how he plays; he’s now got to go in there and tell them that he can do it, or do it better, and he can guarantee them the same thing that Rob Edwards was guaranteeing them – get up to the Premier League.

“His major issue, outside of the obvious, is going to be picking a captain.

“Providing that Kieran Trippier doesn’t rip his contract up, I think it’s going to be Trippier.

“He’s got to sort out a full leadership team, he’s got to get into the players that we can actually score from set-pieces, and defend them.

“Hopefully, drill into the players that ‘Plan A’ isn’t the only plan.

“I think he’s got a hell of a job on his hands but I think, mainly, he’s going to have settle and I think he’s going to have to come out and settle the fans as well.

“There’s going to be some form of press conference or something just to ease how the fans are feeling.

“We don’t know him. It’s not personal between him and the fans yet because he hasn’t spoke – and it’s going to make it difficult.”

Wolves will be expected to challenge for the Championship title

Despite the mess the club has made for itself in recent seasons, Wolves will return to the second division as one of the red hot favourites to win the Championship title next season.

The signings of both Trippier and Jimenez would have to be viewed as statements of intent by the club – albeit only if surely balanced against a recruitment approach that also targets younger players, too.

Cesar Peixoto has his work cut out in that regards as he arrives in English football relatively unknown and with some extremely demanding expectations to work towards.

Peixoto, who managed one cap for the Portuguese national side after stints at Porto, Braga and Benfica as a player, winning both the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League at Porto under the management of Jose Mourinho, has been something of a journeyman coach in Portugal.

Having begun at Varzim and then Academica in 2019, he spent a season apiece at Chaves, Moreiresne and Pacos de Ferreira before returning for a short stint at the latter in 2023.

In the 2024/25 season, he then also returned to Moreirense before taking charge of Gil Vicente in March 2025, performing well as the Roosters finished sixth in Liga Portugal, missing out on the top four and the European spots by nine points, sixth behind fifth, which would have been enough for Europe had second division side Torreense not beaten Sporting CP in the Taca de Portugal final, despite the sale of key man Pablo to West Ham United in the January transfer window.