Stylish Nuno turns Wolves into true believers
The Portuguese is giving one of England’s most historic clubs a new ethos, he tells John Percy
Eight games into the Premier League season, Nuno Espirito Santo is the manager of the month and Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters are chanting with vigour about future European tours.
Nuno’s side are being touted as the best promoted from England’s second tier – though Nottingham Forest fans, in particular, might disagree – and the Portuguese is relishing life at the top table.
Over the course of an absorbing 75 minutes with Nuno at Wolves’ Compton training base, there is just one topic that turns his mood dark – golf, and his difficulties on the fairways of Perton Park, the course three miles away.
“I’m struggling. Struggling, struggling. Twice a week I play. I want to be better at it, because I’m getting beaten,” he says ruefully, while stroking that runaway beard.
“Ian Cathro [the Wolves firstteam coach], he smashes me. It’s a big challenge and I really enjoy it. Every time I play, I’m still thinking about football. If you go from one ball to the other, you have to talk about something, no? I only start thinking about my shot when I get to the ball.
“People there ask for photos. Not many people are there, three or four. That means a photo will be, what, 30 seconds? If somebody asks for a photo, with a smile, it is nothing. Golf is a good time, valued time.”
Nuno is probably accustomed to “selfies” in Wolverhampton now, after a 15-month revolution which has fans serenading him as their own version of “The Special One”.
That chant started at Old Trafford last month, when Nuno frustrated his old Porto coach Jose Mourinho with a thoroughly deserved 1-1 draw, after another stylish performance which only highlighted the inertia afflicting Manchester United. Expect more airings during today’s meeting with Watford at Molineux.
With that familiar 3-4-3 formation, Wolves are six league games unbeaten, five points behind leaders Manchester City, and Nuno is being rewarded for his unwavering belief in how his side should play. “That’s the point of building a team – it would be absurd to do it any other way. Changing something that’s already working would be a huge mistake,” he says. “The identity is there, you don’t build identity, it takes time. Last season the under-18s and 23s didn’t play like us, now they are playing the same shape.
“Whatever is here will have this identity. You have it in big clubs. The moment you put it on the pitch and your players know and see the same things you see, that makes me proud.
“If you compare our situation to a wolf pack, whatever the territory you want to dominate. You want to be yourself there and having your fans seeing that. It’s special for the boys.”
Nuno’s reputation is on the rise and, perhaps inevitably, there are fears he could be tempted away, as his mentor Mourinho was in 2004 when he left Porto for Chelsea.
Yet Wolves’ owner, Fosun, is hugely ambitious, targeting Champions League football within the next five years, and you get the impression Nuno is still only at the beginning of this journey.
“The moment that you sign something, you are already committed to it. They [Fosun] are supportive and what I signed, for
‘What brought me here was not money. It was the chance to create something’
me, is important. Of course, I will honour my contract,” he says. “I’ll have good times and bad times. What brought me here was not money, it was other things, the chance to create something.”
Nuno’s personal journey to one of England’s most famous clubs has been a varied one, since those early years when he was raised on the African island of Principe which he describes as “paradise”.
A goalkeeper, he made only 199 appearances during an 18-year career but established himself as a powerful presence in dressing rooms at clubs including Deportivo La Coruna and Porto. He speaks of the frustration at too many weekends on the bench. He enjoyed the life, though, and tells a wonderful story about his most extravagant purchase as a player.
“I bought some land in Portugal, on the highest hill in Guimaraes, because I pictured that I wanted to build my house there,” he explains.
“I said ‘What a perfect place this would be’, but I forgot to ask the council if I could build a house there. When I did, they said: ‘No!’
“The land is still there. It comes up for application every 15 years when they allow some development. But they told me: ‘This area here? Forget about it! You cannot build there.’
“It was going to be my dream home. It was perfect. We sometimes go and just sit there. Honestly!
“It is beautiful. There is a hill with a big church [Santuario da Penha] and the views are fantastic. But building? No, they don’t allow it. The guy I bought it from doesn’t live in Guimaraes any more…”
Nuno is laughing now, and far removed from the often serious head coach we see before and after matches. He is a huge personality around the club and revered by his players, whose reputations are growing across Europe.
He also possesses a solid bond with his staff – after winning the manager-of-the-month award, he insisted on the medical team joining his six coaches for the presentation, as a reward for helping him name the same starting XI eight matches running.
“I hope I win it again. Next time it will be for the guys from the kitchen. But this is the reality. Everybody is important. Everybody.”