When Wolves went bankrupt - 40 years on

The topic of conversation among Wolves fans this summer concerns the future of Ruben Neves and likely replacements from the Gestifute agency, with several top European youngsters linked with a move to Molineux. August brings a fifth straight season in the Premier League, with consecutive games against Liverpool and Manchester City to follow in September.

Forty years ago the talk was very different. Bankruptcy, receivership, administration, winding up orders. Wolves was a club on the brink. With no social media or internet to trawl, supporters hung on the words of the local Express & Star newspaper.

On 2 July 1982 the headline was the one fans feared the most: WOLVES HAVE GONE BUST. It heralded the darkest period in the club's entire history, with a further administration coming in 1986 on the back of the team's plummet from First to Fourth Division.

The club's travails began with the failure to pay off a loan secured to build a new stand in 1979. In June 1982 a power struggle at the top of the club saw Doug Ellis replace Harry Marshall as chairman. His first act was to request that Lloyds Bank called in the receiver on its £1.85million loan.

Over the next month, interested parties submitted their bids to buy the club, with the administrators securing a deal with Manchester-based property developers Mahmud Al-Hassan Bhatti and Mohammed Akbar Bhatti. The brothers were purported to have links to the Saudi royal family, but their ownership turned sour when they failed to secure a deal with the council for some land behind Molineux. With no recourse to secure the day-to-day funding needed, the club was allowed to rot with star players leaving, managers coming and going at an alarming rate and attendances dwindling.

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