page_title: Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
section_title: The Hayward years (1990–2007)
hierarchical_section_title: Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. / History / The Hayward years (1990–2007)
caption_attribution_description: English: Wolves, Football League Champions. Molineux Stadium 3 May 2009.
context_page_description: Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football club based in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Formed as St. Luke's F.C. in 1877, the club has played at Molineux Stadium since 1889 and competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football, after winning the 2017–18 EFL Championship. Having finished in seventh place in both the 2018–19 Premier League, their first season in the top tier in seven years, and the 2019–20 season, Wolves competed in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, reaching the quarter-finals, the first time the club had qualified for a European tournament for 39 years.
  Wolves was one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888. The club in 2019–20 enjoyed its 65th season of top flight football; Wolves's longest continuous period in the top tier was 26 consecutive seasons in the 33 years between 1932 and 1965. In the 1950s, Wolves were English League champions three times, under the management of Stan Cullis. Wolves have also finished League runners-up on five occasions, most recently in 1959–60.
context_section_description: Lifelong fan Jack Hayward purchased the club in 1990 and immediately funded the extensive redevelopment of dilapidated Molineux into a modern all-seater stadium. With work completed in 1993, Hayward redirected his investment onto the playing side in an attempt to win promotion to the newly formed Premier League. Despite substantial spending, neither Graham Taylor nor Mark McGhee could fulfil this, both managers leading the team to play-off defeats at the semi-final stages in 1995 and 1997 respectively. It was not until 2003 that Wolves were promoted, when they defeated Sheffield United 3–0 in the play-off final under Dave Jones to end a 19-year absence from the top level. Their stay proved short-lived however as they were immediately relegated back to the newly retitled EFL Championship.
caption: Celebrating the Championship title in 2009.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:03 15:35:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6227", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "24/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:05:03 15:35:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:05:03 15:35:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "255/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "145/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "145/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "174/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "525", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2816", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2112", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2824", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "112640/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2112000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}