It is a little over a year since Maximilian Kilman opened the scoring for Wolverhampton Wanderers against Everton at Molineux and unfurled a Mario Lemina shirt to display to home supporters.
At that moment, as Lemina mourned the death of his father in France, the midfielder seemed like the heart and soul of the team. Since then, the 31-year-old has been named Wolves’ player of the year and succeeded Kilman as captain.
Yet less than 13 months on from that emotional moment, Lemina has been stripped of the captaincy and finds himself out of the first-team picture, having told Wolves he no longer wants to play for the club.
Even by the standards of modern player power, it feels like a kick in the teeth for a club with enough to deal with without their efforts to avoid relegation being undermined from within.
Lemina is entitled to fancy a move away from Molineux and within his rights to express his wish to the powers-that-be at Wolves.
But considering how much the club have given him over the course of two years, to act as he has before a formal offer has even been received is a move that is hard to stomach. “I don’t feel mentally in conditions to help the team,” was the message he delivered to Vitor Pereira, according to the new head coach.
Vitor Pereira is attempting to guide Wolves to Premier League safety (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
It is important to make clear there are no reports of Lemina behaving poorly behind the scenes at Wolves — no suggestions of disruptive conduct, bust-ups or anything unprofessional around a training ground where he has been a central figure since arriving at Wolves from Nice two years ago.
Until Tuesday lunchtime, when Lemina informed Pereira he was not in the right frame of mind to play for his team at St James’ Park, he was training as normal with the first team, although whether that remains the case in the wake of Tuesday’s awkward conversation remains to be seen.
But clearly, based on how the head coach reported the conversation, Lemina’s mind is no longer on helping a club that desperately needs all hands on deck.
That has been the case since before Pereira arrived at Wolves. In fact, according to sources who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships — backed up by the head coach in Wednesday’s post-match press conference, Lemina first informed Wolves of his desire to leave around a month ago, shortly after he lost his head during the heated scenes that followed a 2-1 defeat at West Ham United, shoving team-mates and going head-to-head with coach Shaun Derry following a clash with West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen.
Despite those scenes leading to his removal as captain and hinting at a frazzled mind, the reasons for his wish to leave were not immediately clear.
There were no stand-out incidents or obvious clashes with senior figures other than those at the London Stadium — just seemingly a player who had decided that two years at his third Premier League club was enough and the time was right to move on.
At that stage, his likely destination was equally unclear, but following Pereira’s move to Molineux, Lemina’s former Galatasaray manager Fatih Terim replaced him at Al Shabab and the Saudi side expressed an interest in reuniting the men in the nation’s Pro League.
Right now, that seems the most likely escape route, but as yet Al Shabab have not followed up their interest with hard cash.
Until they do, Wolves will find it impossible to grant Lemina his wish.
It is acknowledged at Molineux that keeping an unhappy player is not desirable, so the club will allow Lemina to leave for the right price. But right now, they have no offers to consider.
Players taking steps to force through moves has become an established part of football, accepted by coaches and clubs, even if fans still find such tactics hard to forgive.
That explains why Pereira delivered the news in such a matter-of-fact way in the wake of Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat. His words left little room for doubt over where he stood on the issue and the need for Wolves to resolve it.
While the Portuguese head coach was aware of the looming stand-off when he succeeded Gary O’Neil at the end of December, he could have done without one of his senior players effectively stepping away from his duties just as his own honeymoon period came to an end.
This defeat on Tyneside was a chastening reminder of the scale of the task facing Pereira — three horrible goals conceded, attacking cohesion severely lacking and the chances Wolves did create squandered.
With a testing run of fixtures now under way and his team struggling for form, Pereira needed Lemina to put his shoulder to the wheel, even while his representatives were working behind the scenes to engineer a move elsewhere.
It would have been a much more palatable end to a brief but impactful Wolves career that has included many more highs than lows.
Instead, Lemina will now be remembered by supporters as a man who went missing in their hour of need.
(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
