Dave Edwards: Julen Lopetegui’s the man for the Wolves job

Wolves are striving to be that sort of football club and were on a massive upward trajectory until the last 18 months or so.

It’s taken a wobble, but that might be a bit of a blessing in disguise. I know it’s a tough position joint-bottom but it’s created an opportunity now for a manager with world-class qualities to come in.

He’s got a tough job on his hands early on to try to turn the fortunes around but I have no doubt he will be able to do that.

I also have no doubt Fosun will have had to promise some sort of funds in January to go and reinforce the squad, especially in attacking areas.

Every Wolves fan should be excited; he’s managed at the absolute top level and you don’t do that by chance continually.

I believe we’re really lucky he sees Wolves as a project he wants to get his teeth stuck into.

The mood was low in pre-season with a lack of signings and I’ve written before I did feel sorry for Bruno Lage on that front. He was unlucky in forward positions with a lack of signings, and then injury when they did come.

It’s an area the squad really needs to improve but the club overall just needed a big lift.

No disrespect to Mick Beale at QPR, I’ve covered them a lot and he has them playing terrific stuff, but it would have been a huge ask for him to take this team – I don’t think it would have had the positive response a Lopetegui would have.

This keeps Fosun in the reasonably good books with the fans and hopefully it’s backed up with results

I really have no doubt he can do it. It might take time, the Premier League waits for no-one, safety is the first task.

It was an exciting game for the neutral, which I was trying to be on comms – although that can be difficult when things happen on the pitch.

I was lucky enough to catch Ruben Neves after the game and asked him about working with the manager at Porto, he was so positive about him, he seemed excited. There was a real loss of direction in recent weeks in not knowing who the manager is.

A few things went against Wolves, Nelson Semedo’s red card was clear and the timing of it really knocked the hosts. In the second half it felt like all they could do was scrap and stay in the game.

I’ve watched a lot of Brighton, I know how good they are and after the first five minutes I feared it could be four or five. They looked a level above.

Wolves tried to press high but the visitors picked them off left, right and centre. But the equaliser came quickly once more and that is important. Steve Davis deserved some credit for frustrating Roberto Di Zerbi’s men with a mid-to-deep block, which worked with 10 men.

Fans can be happy with that second half, Wolves battled and competed and limited Brighton to very little, it was unfortunate how the winner came about, it was a bit fortuitous.

I was a bit disappointed to see Wolves be naive and rush things in attack towards the end, which let Brighton off the hook.

But overall there was a lot of heart and spirit shown, which is something I feel has been missing for a number of months. It was good to see back-to-back performances where they’ve really dug deep in that manner.