The 2012–13 season was the 114th season of competitive league football in the history of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. The club competed in the second tier of the English football system, the Football League Championship. They had returned to the second level having been relegated from the Premier League after three seasons during the previous season.
Norwegian manager Ståle Solbakken was appointed to begin the season as the club's manager, but he was sacked on 5 January with the team in 18th place and having been eliminated from the FA Cup by at that time non-league club Luton Town. He was swiftly replaced by former Doncaster Rovers manager Dean Saunders who oversaw the remaining twenty games.
After Saunders failed to bring any upturn, the club suffered relegation for a second successive season to drop into the third level for the first time since 1988–89. This made them the only club to twice experience back-to-back relegations from the top flight, having already suffered this previously in the mid 1980s. Three days after their relegation was confirmed, Saunders was fired having held the post for only four months.
Season review
Having been relegated from the Premier League after three seasons, the club sought to put a new playing style in place under new manager Ståle Solbakken who officially became the permanent replacement for Mick McCarthy on 1 July. In contrast to McCarthy's preference for British and Irish players, the Norwegian used the foreign market for all of his summer signings, with Bakary Sako, Razak Boukari, Björn Sigurðarson and Georg Margreitter signing permanent deals as well as the loan captures of Tongo Doumbia and Sławomir Peszko. Despite these incomings, the transfer window saw the sale of several key players with leading goalscorer Steven Fletcher exiting for a club record £14 million fee, and both Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly also remaining in the Premier League with new clubs.
The players began pre-season training on 9 July, which featured a week at a training camp in Ireland. After four pre-season matches, their first competitive game of the campaign saw the team narrowly win a League Cup tie against Aldershot after a penalty shootout. League football began on 18 August with a 0–1 defeat at Leeds, before the team registered their first victory at Molineux in nine months by beating Barnsley.
After an inconsistent start September brought a run of four consecutive victories to lift the team up the table. Victory at fellow newly relegated club Blackburn in early October placed Wolves in third place, which was to be their highest position of the season. These results came at a price as their injury list grew with Razak Boukari, Stephen Hunt and Sławomir Peszko all sidelined with long-term problems. Winger Jermaine Pennant was therefore loaned to help but the team hit a poor run of form and failed to win any of their next ten fixtures.
December began with a halting of this poor sequence as three wins were recorded from four games, but their three games over the festive period were all lost, leading Solbakken to declare that they were "in a crisis". When the following game - a loss at Luton - brought their first exit from the FA Cup to a non-league side since 1986, he was fired as manager after six months in the role. He later expressed disappointment at owner Steve Morgan offering him such a limited period of time to oversee a reshaping of the club's playing culture and identity.
In contrast to the club's "drawn-out" recruitment process after the dismissal of Mick McCarthy, Solbakken's replacement was swiftly announced within two days as former Doncaster Rovers' manager Dean Saunders was unveiled on 7 January as Wolves' fourth different manager within twelve months. Steve Morgan defended the changes and stated that he hoped Saunders would be with the club "for a long period of time".
At the time of Saunders' first game at the helm, the team sat in 18th position six points clear of the relegation zone and nine points from the play-off places. He said that, while he believed promotion still remained possible, "the more likely scenario is we’re going to creep up the league." He soon used the January transfer window to make two loan signings as defenders Kaspars Gorkšs and Jack Robinson were brought in from the top flight. The manager's first game brought a 1–1 draw against Blackburn, which was to be the first of nine winless games under his command.