Matt Maher: West Brom and Wolves facing up to pivotal periods in history

The two great rivals, a division apart, are entering huge second halves of the season where their differing goals must be achieved.

There’s always plenty for everyone to play for at the midway point of a campaign, of course. Villa will resume their season aiming to build on a promising start under Unai Emery which eased any immediate fears of a relegation fight, while both Shrewsbury and Walsall will attempt to turn promising starts into memorable finishes.

It is at The Hawthorns and a little further up the A41 at Molineux, however, where the stakes feel at their highest. In both cases, the bulk of the burden falls on the shoulders of a Spanish head coach.

Julen Lopetegui is the man tasked with rescuing Wolves’ season. The 56-year-old’s CV is the most impressive of any manager to have sat in the home dugout and the smart money is on him engineering some improved performances. Still, it won’t be easy.

Bottom of the Premier League, having scored just eight goals in the opening 15 matches, it is a long way from what was expected when the club spent £100million on new signings in the summer transfer window.

Of the four players brought in for big money, only the performances of centre-back Nathan Collins could be described as anywhere close to okay. Club record signing Matheus Nunes hasn’t got going, while Goncalo Guedes has been a huge disappointment.

Striker Sasa Kalajdzic played 45 minutes before suffering a knee injury which will likely see him miss the rest of the season.

Owners Fosun appear to have concluded the solution to the problem, aside from hiring a hugely experienced coach in Lopetegui, is to throw more money at it.

Striker Matheus Cunha is the first fresh signing through the door, initially on loan from Atletico Madrid but with a £40m obligation to buy at the end of the season. He will not be the last, with Lopetegui thought to want six new additions before the end of next month.

In many ways it is encouraging, an acknowledgement by ownership things need fixing and a determination to do everything possible to help Lopetegui sort out the mess.

On the other hand, spending big again makes survival in the Premier League even more crucial. There’s never any single reason for a team struggling but the biggest factor in Wolves’ current predicament has been ineffective recruitment since the summer windows of 2017 and 2018, which launched them first toward the Premier League and then toward Europe. Now it is something they simply must get right, when the pressure is at its greatest. An irony not lost on supporters is the fact prior to the recent summer splurge an increasing criticism was Fosun had become too frugal.

There are some unnerving echoes, in that regard, to a summer 2017 window from which it could be argued Albion have never fully recovered.

The Baggies, back then that model of a mid-ranking Premier League club, cut loose the purse strings in the first full summer of Guochuan Lai’s tenure to bring in the likes of Jay Rodriguez, Oliver Burke, Kieran Gibbs and Grzegorz Krychowiak. But instead of challenging in the top half of the division, they went hurtling through the trapdoor. Four of the next five seasons have been spent in the Championship and the onus is on Carlos Corberan to guide them back to the top flight this term.

The current picture at The Hawthorns is of encouraging performances on the pitch meshed with ongoing concerns about the condition of the club off it.

Corberan has engineered an impressively swift turnaround in fortunes since replacing Steve Bruce as head coach, winning five of his first seven matches in charge to move the team away from the relegation zone and into mid-table with exactly half of the season still to play. But there is no time for resting on laurels. In every season since Lai purchased his majority stake from Jeremy Peace for around £200m in 2016, the Baggies have been able to count on either Premier League money or parachute payments. That would not be the case next term should they fail to win promotion. At the very least, a third season in the Championship would bring the most severe test yet of the club and Lai’s finances.

News Albion plan to take out a loan from US investment firm MSD Holdings (previously reported to be between £15-25m) to aid running costs is concerning in that regard.

Football clubs taking out loans is not unusual. Burnley and Sunderland are just two examples who have taken loans from MSD in the past.

The trouble is Lai already owes Albion around £10m. Half of that is from a 2014 loan he inherited from Peace, which will now be subject to an independent investigation. More pertinent is the £4.95m loan he himself took out in 2021 to aid another other businesses, of which repayment is due by Saturday week.

Wiping off the debt would go a long way, if only in the short-term, to easing the growing fears and understandable anger in the fanbase. Speaking back in October, chief executive Ron Gourlay claimed to be “absolutely convinced” Lai would make the payment on time.

He may yet be proved right but to put it mildly, his boss is cutting it mighty fine. For Albion supporters, just like their rivals, a nervy few months lie ahead.