Pre-season training | Week one round-up

6th July 2024

Monday signalled the beginning of July, which means the pre-season schedule ahead of Wolves' 2024/25 Premier League campaign has begun.

Preparations for the opening top flight fixture against Arsenal have got underway this week and will ramp up with each passing day as Gary O’Neil gets his squad ready for the new campaign.

With several of his first-team players now back in pre-season training, wolves.co.uk has rounded up everything that has been going on around Compton Park during the first week of pre-season.

Monday 1^st July

Despite pre-season training yet to get underway, the first day of July was one of the busiest Compton Park has seen since May, as not just one, but two new players came through the training ground’s doors to sign for the Old Gold.

Having agreed the signing of Brazilian teen Pedro Lima last month, Wolves were required to wait until the right-back’s 18^th birthday to bring him to the club – fortunately, his birthday coincided with the start of pre-season, meaning he was able to make his first visit to Compton earlier this week.

Agent Cunha at work 🇧🇷👔 pic.twitter.com/sG5aXVFdsZ
— Wolves (@Wolves) July 2, 2024

Lima wasn’t the first new addition through the door at 9am on Monday, however, as just 15 minutes earlier, Norwegian striker Jorgen Strand Larsen arrived at the training ground to also undertake his medical.

Both players passed with flying colours, and later in the day, the pair carried out media duties, with the club’s content team taking over sporting director Matt Hobbs’ office for the day to film Lima’s announcement video, while Strand Larsen headed to Molineux for a signing shoot in the dressing room, before sitting down to give his first interview with Wolves TV.

#Summer2024

Tuesday 2^nd July

Following a late night for the media team who spent Monday evening and Tuesday morning putting together all of the content they had created throughout the previous day, ready for both players to be announced, the first signing dropped at 2pm on Tuesday.

First up was Strand Larsen, before his Brazilian teammate was confirmed later at 7pm. Getting players to join the club early in the transfer window, together with fellow newbie Rodrigo Gomes, allows the trio to join up with O’Neil’s squad ahead of pre-season training.

But it wasn’t just player new players who were revealed on Tuesday, but between the announcements of Strand Larsen and Lima came the unveiling of Wolves’ brand-new home kit for the 2024/25 season.

A first collaboration between SUDU and Wolves has produced what is hoped to become an iconic kit as the club enters its seventh consecutive season in the Premier League.

Wednesday 3^rd July

At 9am on Wednesday, the 2024/25 home kit went on sale online at shop.wolves.co.uk, before the Wolves Megastore – which had been temporarily closed since Saturday evening – reopened at 12pm.

Ahead of the shop opening, queues built up around Molineux as excitement was building from the hundreds of fans who wanted to be some of the first to get their hands on the brand-new kit.

On Wednesday, Wolves also invited the fans who were involved in the launch video for the kit to come down to Molineux for a special VIP visit where they took home their new SUDU shirt.

The first to take it home 💛

We thanked the fans from our kit launch video with new shirts ahead of the Megastore reopening yesterday.
— Wolves (@Wolves) July 4, 2024

Thursday 4^th July

Down at Compton on Thursday, the backroom staff were preparing the training ground ready for the players’ return for the first official day of pre-season and their medical testing the following day.

Supporters also got their first glimpse of behind the scenes shots caught on camera from the filming of the home kit announcement video – which was filmed back in May before the players headed off on their summer breaks.

Friday 5^th July

Pre-season is underway! The first members of O’Neil’s squad were back for testing early on Friday morning as the likes of Matheus Cunha, Craig Dawson and Tommy Doyle reunited with teammates following the summer break.

They also met some returning faces who had been out on loan last season, such as Chiquinho and Joe Hodge, as the players underwent medical tests before preparations for 2024/25 properly begins out on the grass on Saturday.

But that wasn’t all that happened on Friday, with the morning also seeing Wolves announce striker Nathan Fraser’s long-term contract with the Old Gold.

The academy graduate, who has been part of the club since he was just seven, has signed a deal which will keep him at Molineux until 2028, with Hobbs explaining the next season will be a crucial one to determine Fraser’s future.