Wolves face off against former manager Nuno Espirito Santo this weekend with the Portuguese man dropping his verdict on the disallowed goal against West Ham.
Nuno Espirito Santo is fondly remembered at Wolves. He orchestrated the most successful period of the club’s recent history, dragging them from the Championship and into Europe within two seasons.
The Portuguese manager helped lure the likes of Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Rui Patricio and Diogo Jota to Molineux.
Nuno departed Wolverhampton in 2021 following a successful four years at the club. The 50-year-old has since endured a tricky spell in management; he was sacked after four months at Tottenham in November 2021 and managed Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad for 53 matches before taking the job at Nottingham Forest in December.
Forest are currently 17th in the table, level on points with 18th-place Luton Town while Nuno has overseen four wins in 15 Premier League matches in charge.
For Wolves and their opponents this weekend, there is a lot on the line as Gary O’Neil‘s men challenge for Europe and Forest battle to stay in the division.
Wolves were robbed of a point against West Ham last weekend, a match that could prove significant once the season draws to a close and Nuno has given his verdict on Max Kilman‘s disallowed goal.
Nuno Espirito Santo gives verdict on Wolves disallowed goal
O’Neil was left seething last weekend as Wolves were denied a 98th-minute equaliser against West Ham.
Max Kilman’s header was chalked off as Tawanda Chirewa was deemed to be in an offside position and blocking Lukasz Fabianski from making the save, therefore interfering with play.
Chirewa, however, wasn’t blocking Fabianski from making a save and was never getting to Kilman’s header to keep it out. The Polish shot-stopper even agreed post-match that it was the wrong decision.
Ahead of Wolves’ visit to the City Ground this weekend, Nuno was asked his thoughts on the decision to disallow the goal.
“That’s one of the issues we’ve been talking about, sometimes what we want is better decisions,” Nuno told Forest’s official YouTube channel.
“I think it was a goal, but I was not involved in the game. Lets not talk too much about referees and expect good work. Let the referees not be protagonists in the game; that is the best time.”
Wolves must win to keep European hopes alive
If Kilman’s goal wasn’t chalked off last weekend, the Old Gold would be three points behind the Hammers with a game in hand.
As several VAR decisions have gone against O’Neil’s side this term, they’ll feel they should be higher than 11th, six points behind the final European place.
A defeat against West Ham last weekend has set up a must-win scenario for Wolves to keep their ambitions of finishing in Europe alive.
While many believe the Wolves squad is too thin to tackle a European competition next campaign, the increase in prize money is worth its weight in gold.
And although those dreams have faltered in recent weeks, a victory over their former manager can get them back on track.