Nuno building empire to last at Molineux
NUNO Espirito Santo has revealed the details of a plot which has dogged him for the last 15 years.
With everything Nuno touches seemingly turning to old gold, it is difficult to imagine anything spoiling his dream.
His Wolves side are the talk of the Premier League, sitting seventh in the table after going through the Championship like a steamroller last season. The Molineux anthem of ‘Nuno Had a Dream’ is sung louder than ever and can be seen adorning T-shirts, books and flags.
The 44-year-old from the paradise islands of Sao Tome and Principe off the coast of west Africa seems to have found his spiritual home in the Black Country. But not everything in Nuno’s world is going according to plan.
The ‘plot’ in question goes back to when he splashed out for a piece of land enjoying idyllic views on a hillside in Portugal, only to discover he could not build on it. The planners show no sign of relenting, so Nuno’s dream home looks like being a nonstarter.
The strict disciplinarian tells this cautionary tale after being asked how he deals with young players he feels are getting carried away with the trappings of success.
“I should have checked it out, but it was in 2002 and I was 27,” he says.
“It was going to be my dream home. It was perfect. We sometimes go and just sit there. It is beautiful. There is a hill with a big church and the views are fantastic. But building? No, they don’t allow it.
“As a youngster I never had a lot so, of course, the more money I had the more extravagant I could be. I bought land because I pictured that I wanted to build my house there. I just forgot to ask the council. This is extravagance.
“I forgot to ask them, ‘Can I build a house there?’ When I did, they said no.
“It comes up for application every 15 years when they allow some development. But they told me, ‘This area here? “I DON’T have ‘spies’ around the town keeping tabs on players and letting me know what they have been up to.
“I don’t have to. They have Instagram. Everyone knows what they are doing. Why would I need to chase around?
“I don’t have it myself. You know why? You have tags that go ‘ping-ping-ping-ping!’ You don’t have to do it, they do monitor it by themselves.
“They are so proud of showing themselves and where they are and the Forget about build there’.” What Nuno is building at Molineux is far more precious. He picked up the Premier League Manager of the Month award for September to cap his side’s astonishing graduation to the top flight. Wolves have lost just one league game all season and, remarkably, bull **** they are doing that you don’t have to chase them.
“When Sir Alex Ferguson (right) did it, how many people did he have working for him? I would say you can do it like this and you don’t have to chase anybody. You can’t do anything without people knowing about it.
“I don’t like it, to be honest. But I don’t worry about the players using it. It’s not my job to manage their social media – there are companies doing that.” Nuno has named an unchanged starting XI in all eight games.
A home draw with champions Manchester City and a point at Manchester United have alerted the rest that Nuno’s men are not sheep in Wolves’ clothing. Next up is Watford this
afternoon. Nuno prides himself on being the father figure of his tightlyknit pack and likes to see his rules observed. He insists on good manners and for everyone to acknowledge one another, be that a star player, the “IF I’m playing golf, people sometimes ask for photos. They never tell me if I’ve made a bad shot.
“It doesn’t bother me. Why should it? That means a selfie will be, what, 30 seconds? It’s natural, come on. If somebody asks for a photo, with a smile, it is nothing.
“It doesn’t make my golf any better. I’m struggling, struggling, receptionist or the kit man. It is around those core rules that his Wolves side is built, and Nuno is genuinely surprised at eyebrows being raised over the way his players have carried their Championship style into the Premier League.
“What you have to become is really strong in what you do. That’s the point of building a team. It would be absurd to do it any other way,” he says. “Why would you want to be changing something that’s already working?
“You cannot say we are surprised – but at the same time it would be arrogant if we said we expect it.
“Changing your approach would be a betrayal of what you believe in. It’s working, why do you change? You don’t have to.
“It doesn’t mean you are less or more brave; it’s the way you do it, the way you believe in things. Wolves is a big club. What brought me here was not money, it was other things. It was having the chance to create
something.”