How Wolves plunged to the lower leagues and nearly ceased to exist - Part 3: A false dawn
In more detail than ever before, the Express & Star tells the full Bhatti brothers story - a troubled era which saw Wolves plunge to depths of the lower leagues and face financial oblivion. In part 3, we look at a bold new era ushered in by new chief executive Derek Dougan - but was it a false dawn?
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Flanked by his new board of directors, Derek Dougan confidently strode out on to the pitch at Molineux in August 1982, wagging his finger for the photographer as he "pointed to the future".
A few inches to their left stood Wolves' beleaguered manager Ian Greaves. They put on on a show of unity for the cameras, Greaves even managed to force a smile. But you didn't need to be a psychologist to note something about the manager's body language to see something was amiss.
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A small, but noticeable gap separated him from the tightly packed line-up of new Wolves executives. Hands in his pockets, Greaves looked confused and sullen.
The next day he was fired.
It seems he knew it was coming.
According to Steve Gordos, assistant sports editor of the Express & Star at the time, Greaves had confided in club captain John Richards "If Dougan comes here, that's me finished".
The pair had apparently clashed during a television appearance where they both appeared on a panel of experts. Richards quickly came to the conclusion that "if you upset Dougan, he won’t forget it".
Hours before his dismissal, Greaves told the Express & Star's David Harrison that his spell at Wolves had been the most traumatic of his managerial career.
"I am delighted for the players, the supporters the local community and the whole of football that Wolves have been saved and will be starting the new season," he said.
"But on a personal note, I now wish to discover whether I will be able to get on and manage the club in the way I would like to.
"My job has not been an easy one since I came here. I have had four bosses – Harry Marshall, Doug Ellis, the receiver and now Derek Dougan – and I have always been surrounded by uncertainty.
"In many ways I did the receiver's job for him before he moved in. I chopped everything down to a minimum, saved £180,000 in running costs and have had to let 11 players go."
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Greaves said he had refused to take sides in the boardroom battles of the previous six months.
"I am not interested in this sort of boardroom politics," he said. "Football is the only thing which concerns me and it is important to discover exactly where I stand."
The following morning Greaves attended a meeting with Dougan, and was asked to resign. He refused to do so, and was informed that he was sacked with immediate effect.
Greaves must surely have wished he had stayed at Oxford United, and it seemed even Dougan acknowledged he was a little hard done by.
"Clearly, Ian Greaves has had a very difficult time in the past four months and it would be wrong not to acknowledge this at the outset.
"However, I have made it absolutely clear right from the start that we intend to have our own men with us and it is in the interests of Wolves that a change is made."
There was more bad news for Greaves. With 18 months remaining on his £33,000-a-year contract, he would ordinarily have been entitled to £50,000 in compensation. But in what would be a test case for football clubs that had been placed in receivership, it was understood that Dougan and his board argued that the new regime was not liable for contracts agreed by the previous company.