Wolves Women end of season 24/25 statement

As Wolves Women come to the end of the 2024/25 season, the Wolves 1877 Trust would like to congratulate Dan “Macca” McNamara, the staff and all the players on the season they have had.

There have been some notable highlights this season; including beating West Brom at the Hawthorns & Molineux with a record attendance for a Women’s Black Country Derby in the Molineux game and selling out the SEAH Stadium, with over 5,000 fans for the FA Cup game against WSL Man Utd, after another excellent run in that competition.  Looking beyond the first team, it was also a proud moment to see a young Wolves Women player leading out England U16’s – the future is bright.

In the League, Macca and the players have pushed the odds-on favourites, full-time Nottingham Forest, all the way for the title this season, finishing above teams with much larger budgets. This is a huge credit to his management and the players’ efforts for our club, they epitomise what it means to play for our club!  We could not be prouder of them all.

 However, the Trust is very concerned and disappointed with the news that came out shortly after full time that the club hierarchy did not submit the paperwork for promotion to the Women's Championship. This lack of, not only ambition, but respect for Wolves Women goes against the aspiration to inspire local girls to play for Wolves Women; the best way to do this is surely to to invest in the team and increase the investment.

Women’s football is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and whilst there is an overlap in the fan base with the men’s team there are fans who only support the women’s team. The club should look to expand this fanbase and encourage the development of the pack at Telford for Wolves Women.

This is also the second season that the FAWNL Northern Division has been won by a team that has gone Full Time.  It is clear that as the women’s game develops, Wolves Women needs to benchmark itself against similar teams who are significantly stepping up their investment.  Unfortunately, in the latest accounts it appears that Wolves are holding their investment around the £300k, over a million pounds behind the title winners.

 With the news today we run the risk that none of the players or staff, including Macca, will want to stay at the club. The club heirarchy needs to urgently put out a clear message to the fans and players that they have learnt from this mistake and will take positive steps forward to ensure it never happens again.

We note in the last few seasons where teams have stood still in their investment they struggle within the League and fall away (e.g. Fylde, Huddersfield & Derby), as everyone else steps up their investment.  We do not wish to see this happen for Wolves Women and as such call upon the club to significantly increase the investment and implement a plan for the team (both on and off the pitch) to go full-time within three years.  

We hope that when we get to next season we will have Macca leading our talented team and it will be another entertaining season, played with pride.

In the meantime, as a Trust we will be seeking engagement with the club to discuss this issue directly and to ensure that fans’ concerns are raised.