The 2018–19 season was the 141st in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers and the 2nd under then-head coach Nuno Espírito Santo. In that season, they returned to the Premier League for the first time since being relegated in 2012 via winning the previous season's EFL Championship. They also reached their first knockout competition semi-final in 21 years through their participation in the FA Cup semi-finals.
The club finished in 7th place, their highest position in the English league system since 1979–80 and the highest of any newly promoted team since Ipswich Town finished 5th in the 2000–01 season. As a result of Manchester City winning all 3 domestic trophies on offer that season, this league position gained them a place in the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, invoking the club's first continental participation since the 1980–81 season.
Pre-season friendlies
Competitions Premier League
A total of 20 teams competed in the Premier League in the 2018–19 season. Each team played every other team twice, once at their stadium, and once at the opposition's. Three points were awarded to teams for each win, one point per draw, and none for defeats.
League table
Results summary
Results by matchday
Results The provisional fixture list was released on 14 June 2018, but was subject to change in the event of matches being selected for television coverage or police concerns.
FA Cup
The third round draw was made live on the BBC by Ruud Gullit and Paul Ince from Stamford Bridge on 3 December. The fourth round draw was made live on the BBC by Robbie Keane and Carl Ikeme following Wolves' third round victory on 7 January. The fifth round draw was made live on the BBC by Ian Wright and Alex Scott on 28 January. The draw for the quarter-final was made on 18 February by Darren Fletcher and Wayne Bridge. The draw for the semi-finals was made live on the BBC on 17 March by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Leon Osman.
EFL Cup
The second round draw was made from the Stadium of Light on 16 August. The third round draw was made on 30 August 2018 by David Seaman and Joleon Lescott.
EFL Trophy
Wolves were one of the sixteen teams from outside the bottom two divisions of the Football League to be invited to field their academy team in the competition due to it holding Category 1 academy status. They were drawn into Group H in the Northern section. In matches level at the end of 90 minutes, a penalty shoot-out was held with the winner earning a bonus point.
Group table
Players First team squad
Squad No. Name Nationality Position(s) Date of birth (age) Signed From Year signed Goalkeepers11Rui PatrícioGK Sporting CP201821John Ruddy HGGK Norwich City201731Will Norris HGGK Cambridge United2017 Defenders2Matt Doherty HGRWB Bohemians20105Ryan Bennett HGCB Norwich City15Willy BolyCB Porto201816Conor Coady HGCB Huddersfield Town201519JonnyLWB/RWB Atlético Madrid (Loan)2018 (Loan)29Rúben Vinagre U21LWB Monaco201830Kortney Hause HGCB Wycombe Wanderers201447Cameron John HGCBAcademy201949Max Kilman HGCBAcademy2019—Ethan Ebanks-Landell HGCBAcademy2010 Midfielders8Rúben NevesCM Porto201717Morgan Gibbs-White HG U21CM/STAcademy201723Ryan Giles HG U21LMAcademy 201825Elliot Watt U21 CMAcademy201826Pedro Gonçalves U21CMAcademy 201827Romain SaïssCM/CB Angers201628João MoutinhoCM Monaco201832Leander Dendoncker DM/CB Anderlecht (Loan)2018 (Loan) Forwards7Ivan CavaleiroRW/LW/ST Monaco20169Raúl JiménezST Benfica (Loan)2018 (Loan)10Hélder CostaLW/RW Benfica201714Bright Enobakhare LW/RWAcademy201518Diogo JotaLW/ST Atlético Madrid201824Benny Ashley-Seal U21STAcademy 201833Léo BonatiniST Al-Hilal201837Adama Traoré RW/ST Middlesbrough201845Niall Ennis HG U21STAcademy2013 HG = Homegrown Player U21 = Under-21 Player (born on or after 1 January 1997) Players in italics out on loan during the season
Statistics
|align="left"|||align="left"|||align="left"| |||4||||4||1||0||||8||5||0 |- |align="left"|||align="left"|||align="left"| |34||1||4||0||||0||||1||12||0||Bennett was suspended vs Chelsea (a) and Burnley (a) due to accumulating ten yellow cards. |- |align="left"|||align="left"|||align="left"| ¤ † |||0||||0||0||0||0||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|||align="left"|||align="left"| |||3||||2||1||0||||5||1||0|| |- |align="left"|||align="left"|||align="left"| |||4||||1||0||0||||5||10||0||Neves was suspended vs Chelsea (h) due to accumulating five yellow cards. |- |align="left"|||align="left"|||style="background:#faecc8; text-align:left;"| ‡ |||13||||4||0||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||17||4||0|| |- |align="left"|10||align="left"|||align="left"| |||1||||0||||1||||2||3||0|| |- |align="left"|11||align="left"|||align="left"| |37||0||||0||0||0||style="background:#98FB98"|37||0||1||0|| |- |align="left"|14||align="left"|||align="left"| ¤ |||0||||0||0||0||||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|15||align="left"|||align="left"| |36||4||5||0||0||0||41||4||3||1||Boly was suspended vs Leicester City (h), Shrewsbury Town (a) and West Ham United (h) due to receiving a red card for violent conduct vs Manchester City (a). |- |align="left"|16||align="left"|||align="left"| |38||0||6||0||2||0||46||0||6||0|| |- |align="left"|17||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||2||0||||0||2||0|| |- |align="left"|18||align="left"|||align="left"| |||9||3||1||||0||||10||12||0|| |- |align="left"|19||align="left"|||style="background:#faecc8; text-align:left;"| ‡ |||1||5||0||1||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||1||6||0|| |- |align="left"|21||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||6||0||2||0||||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|23||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||1||0||0||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|24||align="left"|||align="left"| ¤ |||0||||0||||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|25||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||1||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|26||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|27||align="left"|||align="left"| |||2||5||0||2||0||||2||8||0|| |- |align="left"|28||align="left"|||align="left"| |||1||||0||0||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||1||5||0|| |- |align="left"|29||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||2||0||||0||1||0|| |- |align="left"|30||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||2||0||||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|31||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||0||0||||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|32||align="left"|||style="background:#faecc8; text-align:left;"| ‡ |||2||5||0||2||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||2||1||0|| |- |align="left"|33||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||2||1||||1||0||0|| |- |align="left"|37||align="left"|||align="left"| |||1||||0||2||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||1||1||0|| |- |align="left"|38||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||0||0||||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|45||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||0||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|47||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||0||0||||0||0||0|| |- |align="left"|49||align="left"|||align="left"| |||0||||0||0||0||style="background:#98FB98"|||0||0||0||
Awards AwardWinner Fans' Player of the Season João Moutinho Players' Player of the Season Raúl Jiménez Young Player of the Season Rúben Vinagre Academy Player of the Season Lewis Richards Goal of the Season Diogo Jota(vs Cardiff, 2 March 2019)
Transfers In DatePlayerFromFee 1 June 2018 Benik Afobe AFC Bournemouth Undisclosed 1 June 2018 Willy Boly Porto Undisclosed 18 June 2018 Rui Patrício Sporting CP Compensation 1 July 2018 Léo Bonatini Al-Hilal Undisclosed 1 July 2018 Pascal Juan Estrada Fußballakademie Linz Undisclosed 1 July 2018 Diogo Jota Atlético Madrid Undisclosed 1 July 2018 Rúben Vinagre Monaco Undisclosed 1 July 2018 Adrián Álvarez San Sebastián de los Reyes Free 19 July 2018 Paulo Alves Unattached Free 24 July 2018 João Moutinho Monaco Undisclosed 8 August 2018 Adama Traoré Middlesbrough Undisclosed 1 August 2018 Theo Corbeanu Toronto Free 9 August 2018 João Caiado Tondela Undisclosed 9 August 2018 John Kitolano Odd Undisclosed 9 August 2018 Max Kilman Maidenhead United Undisclosed 9 August 2018 Jamie Pardington Rushall Olympic Undisclosed 9 August 2018 Dongda He Notts County Undisclosed 31 August 2018 Sadou Diallo Unattached Free 1 January 2019 David Wang FC Jumilla Undisclosed 18 January 2019 Michael Agboola Dagenham & Redbridge Undisclosed 19 January 2019 Ed Francis Manchester City Undisclosed 31 January 2019 Jonny Atlético Madrid Undisclosed
Loans in Date fromPlayerFromDate until 12 June 2018 Raúl Jiménez Benfica End of season 25 July 2018 Jonny Atlético Madrid 31 January 9 August 2018 Leander Dendoncker Anderlecht End of season 9 August 2018 Alexander Molberg Hobro IK End of season
Out DatePlayerToFee 14 June 2018 Duckens Nazon Sint-Truiden Undisclosed 30 June 2018 Ben Marshall Norwich City £1,500,000 12 July 2018 Prince Oniangué SM Caen Undisclosed 27 July 2018 Carl Ikeme Retired 28 July 2018 Barry Douglas Leeds United £1,000,000 1 October 2018 Andrew Sealey-Harris Farnborough Free transfer 1 January 2019 Benik Afobe Stoke City Undisclosed 29 January 2019 Danny Batth Stoke City Undisclosed 30 January 2019 Ben Stevenson Colchester United Undisclosed 31 January 2019 Dominic Iorfa Sheffield Wednesday Undisclosed
Loans out Date fromPlayerToDate until 23 May 2018 Christián Herc FC DAC 1904End of season 7 June 2018 Aaron Collins Colchester United End of season 12 June 2018 Benik Afobe Stoke City 1 January 2019 16 June 2018 Harry Burgoyne Plymouth Argyle 7 December 2018 22 June 2018 Sherwin Seedorf Bradford City 20 January 2019 11 July 2018 Roderick Miranda Olympiacos End of season 23 July 2018 Rafa Mir Las Palmas End of season 31 July 2018 Ben Goodliffe Dagenham & Redbridge 1 January 2019 1 August 2018 Aaron Hayden Stourbridge End of season 22 August 2018 Sylvain Deslandes FC Jumilla End of season 22 August 2018 Will Randall FC Jumilla January 2019 22 August 2018 Ming-yang Yang FC Jumilla End of season 22 August 2018 Ryan Leak FC Jumilla End of season 22 August 2018 Aaron Simpson FC Jumilla January 2019 22 August 2018 Boubacar Hanne FC Jumilla End of season 22 August 2018 Donovan Wilson FC Jumilla January 2019 28 August 2018 Jordan Graham Ipswich Town 2 January 2019 28 August 2018 Jack Ruddy FC Jumilla End of season 30 August 2018 Ben Stevenson FC Jumilla 30 January 2019 31 August 2018 Bright Enobakhare Kilmarnock 1 January 2019 31 August 2018 Phil Ofosu-Ayeh Hansa Rostock January 2019 31 August 2018 Danny Batth Middlesbrough 29 January 2019 31 August 2018 Connor Ronan Walsall January 2019 31 August 2018 Connor Johnson Walsall End of season 31 August 2018 Joe Mason Portsmouth January 2019 31 August 2018 Michał Żyro Pogoń Szczecin End of season 31 August 2018 Paul Gladon Sint-Truiden January 2019 31 August 2018 Dan McKenna Telford United January 2019 1 January 2019 David Wang Sporting CP End of season 2 January 2019 Jordan Graham Oxford United End of season 7 January 2019 Kortney Hause Aston Villa End of season 8 January 2019 Bright Enobakhare Coventry City End of season 11 January 2019 Ethan Ebanks-Landell Rochdale End of season 20 January 2019 Sherwin Seedorf FC Jumilla End of season 21 January 2019 Harry Burgoyne Falkirk End of season 22 January 2019 Benny Ashley-Seal FC Famalicão End of season 31 January 2019 Léo Bonatini Nottingham Forest End of season 31 January 2019 Phil Ofosu-Ayeh Würzburger Kickers End of season 31 January 2019 Connor Ronan FC DAC 1904 End of season 31 January 2019 Jack Ruddy S.S. Reyes End of season 31 January 2019 Donovan Wilson Exeter City End of season
Loan returns