Kieran Trippier Embraces Championship Challenge with Wolves
Kieran Trippier strolls into the room in full Wolves gear – vest, shorts, sliders – looking every bit the senior pro at ease in new surroundings. The question that has followed him all summer is never far away, and he knows it.
Three days after he signed for Wolves, the manager he had named as a key reason for dropping into the Championship, Rob Edwards, was sacked. Before the ink on his contract had dried, the club had already accelerated a deal for his replacement, César Peixoto.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie, I wasn’t expecting it,” Trippier says. “But it’s the club’s decision. I had good chats with Rob, of course, but I’m here to play for Wolves.”
He shrugs as if to say: that’s football. Shock, then straight back to work.
“There are many surprises in football and that certainly was a surprise, I’m not going to deny that. But I just cracked on, I was with my kids on holiday, training in Mallorca and just looking forward to day one in pre-season.”
What came next irritated him more than the decision itself. Rumours swirled that he was already trying to tear up his deal and walk away.
“I’ve read it all: that I was looking to rip my contract up, and all this nonsense,” he says. “I was just looking forward to reporting back to Wolves. I don’t know where it even came from to be honest, that I was looking to rip my contract up – it certainly didn’t come from me, otherwise you would have heard it from me, that’s just the player that I am.”
The bluntness fits the man. Trippier has built a career on straight talking and straight delivery from the right flank. He leaves Newcastle as a modern reference point in their revival under Eddie Howe, his time there capped by last year’s Carabao Cup triumph. Before that came three seasons at Atlético Madrid under Diego Simeone, ending with a La Liga title, and four under Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham, climaxing in a Champions League final.
Layer onto that four major tournaments with England, including starting every game on the way to the Euro 2024 final, and you have a player who has spent the last decade at the sport’s sharp end.
Now he is back where it all hardened him: the second tier. Twelve years on from winning promotion with Burnley, he is set to start Wolves’ Championship opener against Blackburn on Friday. The gear change is obvious. Barcelona at St James’ Park one year, Bolton at Molineux the next.
“I’m not ashamed to go to the Championship because I played in it for many years,” he says, thinking back to his teenage days at Barnsley, defending alongside Darren Moore. “I had a good chat with Eddie Howe and Ross Wilson [Newcastle’s sporting director] and made my decision at the end of the season that I wanted to try something new. There were a few [interested] clubs but it was important for me that I was close to my children.”
Home is Manchester. The Championship, he knows, does not care for reputations. He still remembers Burnley’s 2-1 win at Molineux in the penultimate game of 2012‑13, a result that eased Burnley’s relegation fears and all but sent Wolves to League One.
Now he is the one warning others.
“I’ve been speaking to my teammates because the majority of them have never played in the Championship, so it’s important for myself and the lads who have to help them and try and make them understand that it’s going to be difficult.
“I’ve just said: it’s relentless, because it is … and it’s totally different to the Premier League. Going to Lincoln away is going to be a difficult game, but they’re good lads who have listened to me, Tommy [Doyle], Adam [Armstrong]. The lads will be ready.”
This is Trippier’s first sit‑down interview since joining Wolves on a two‑year deal with an option for a further year. Before signing he canvassed opinions from those who knew the club: Tommy Doyle, Conor Coady, John Ruddy and Sam Johnstone, the latter on holiday with him in Turkey when the move gathered pace. He wanted what he calls “the insides of the club”.
Edwards’s exit naturally dominates the early weeks of his Wolves story, but Trippier’s vantage point stretches wider. He has just lived through another seismic change: Howe’s departure from Newcastle after four and a half years.
“He helped the club stay in the Premier League, twice qualified for the Champions League, won a trophy, but the most important thing he did was reconnecting the supporters with the team,” Trippier says. “I was told before the [Saudi Arabia-led] takeover that it was not a good place to be – the fans were against the owners, the board etc – but when the new owners came in, and the manager, he [Howe] connected everyone, just like Gareth Southgate did with England.”
Ask if Howe deserves a statue and Trippier grins. “He’s won a trophy, hasn’t he? But that’s not for me to decide … the parade was incredible, the big banner of the manager showed the love the supporters had for him and still have now. When I first went there, it was a tough place [to play], especially after getting beat by Cambridge [in the FA Cup third round], but maybe that was a blessing, really, so we could just focus on [staying in] the Premier League … he will go down in history there, for sure. I’m gutted to see him go.”
The conversation swings again, this time to England and the World Cup semi-final collapse against Argentina, when a deep defensive block finally cracked late on. For Trippier, it stirred familiar feelings from his time in Spain.
“I’ve been in that position many, many times with Simeone – I could name 30 games when he’s done it and we’ve managed to see it out, typical Simeone for you. He’s the master of the dark arts and seeing out games. Thomas Tuchel has been in that position many, many times, won a Champions League trophy with Chelsea, did unbelievable with Bayern Munich … it just didn’t happen. We were against one of the greatest players ever who can flick a switch,” he says of Lionel Messi, clicking his fingers.
“I’ve played against him many times where he just walks for 60 minutes, but then he can score a hat-trick. That’s just the magic of him.”
Back at Wolves, attention turns to the man tasked with dragging them out of the Championship. Peixoto is an unfamiliar name to many in England, but not to Trippier.
The 46‑year‑old arrives from Gil Vicente with a reputation that had already reached the defender’s radar. His English is strong enough that Trippier has not needed to fall back on the Spanish he picked up in Madrid.
“When the postman used to come in Madrid, I used to get my son to answer because he was fluent,” he says, laughing.
So what has Peixoto brought?
“Really demanding. Honest. On the training field he is 100mph, nuts – in a good way – but he’s really, really demanding and I think that’s what we need as players if we want to be successful. He’s very demanding, like Pochettino and Simeone. He has his own rules: don’t break his trust, don’t be late. I wouldn’t like to be on his bad side, let’s put it that way.”
Trippier turns 36 in September, twice the age of Mateus Mané, the bright young forward he faced with Newcastle last season and now sees up close as one of the players Wolves hope will light up the campaign.
“I feel good, I feel probably in the best shape I’ve been in for many, many years. I’m not as fast as I used to be but I always believe I am clever and fast up here,” he says, tapping his temples. “I feel like I’ve still got many years left in the tank.”
For Wolves, landing him was a statement. A coup, in truth.
“It’s similar to when I went to Newcastle, when I left Atlético Madrid … There were a lot of eyebrows raised, but throughout my whole career I’ve had no regrets.”
He is part of Peixoto’s leadership group and knows exactly how the rest of the division will view them.
“Going into the Blackburn game, the first game of the Championship season, all eyes will be on us,” he says. “When teams get relegated from the Premier League, everybody wants to beat them.”
Last season’s trauma hangs in the background but does not interest him.
“It was a tough year for Wolves last year, but this season is a new season, like a reset. The reality is now we’re in the Championship, so you have to forget what happened last season and look forward, be positive. Our goal has to be to go straight back up to the Premier League.”
The message is simple. Shock, noise, change – accept it, absorb it, move on. Wolves have dropped a division. Trippier has dropped with them. Now comes the only response he recognises: fight your way back out.
