Tolu Arokodare’s first season in English football ended in relegation, but the Super Eagles striker has chosen to focus on gratitude rather than regret as Wolverhampton Wanderers prepare for Championship football next term.
Nigeria striker Tolu Arokodare has posted a public message of thanks to Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters following the club’s relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2025/26 season. The 25 year old, who finished as joint top scorer for Wolves with three league goals alongside Rodrigo Gomes, took to Instagram to reflect on a campaign that produced personal highlights even as the club sank to 20th place in the table. Wolves’ relegation ends an eight year stay in the Premier League that began with their Championship title win under Nuno Espirito Santo in 2017/18. Fans who want to follow Arokodare’s next chapter can check Bet9ja’s Premier League page for the latest odds on which clubs are tracking him ahead of the summer window.
“A tough season for all of us, but feeling your support while you stuck with us this season is something I don’t take for granted,” Arokodare wrote. “I’ve had some great personal moments and it makes me proud to have shared them with you all. Thanks for your support Wolves, see you next season.” The tone is notable. There is no blame directed at the club, no distancing from the result, and no suggestion that his future lies elsewhere, even as transfer links continue to swirl around him.
A Season of Missed Opportunities
The numbers from Arokodare’s debut Premier League campaign tell a story that is more complicated than three league goals suggest. He made 28 league appearances, but more than half of those came from the bench, which limited his ability to build momentum over consecutive matches. Across all competitions he recorded six goals and two assists in 38 appearances, including two goals in the EFL Cup. His first Premier League goal, a late header against Arsenal, was the kind of moment that showed exactly what Wolves thought they were signing when they paid KRC Genk around 24 million euros for him on deadline day in September 2025.
The gap between Genk and Molineux is wider than the transfer fee implied. In his final Belgian Pro League season Arokodare scored 23 goals and added seven assists in 45 appearances, winning the Golden Boot by virtue of away goals scored after finishing level with the joint top scorer. That form attracted clubs from across Europe. The Premier League, though, is a different environment, and Wolves’ collective dysfunction, finishing with just 20 points from three wins across the entire campaign, meant he was often asked to lead a line that had little support around it. New users tracking his transfer this summer can use the Bet9ja’s YOHAIG promo code to get the best welcome offer before the window officially opens.
The Coaching Upheaval That Hurt Everyone
Wolves went through two managerial changes during the season. Vitor Pereira was replaced by Rob Edwards in November 2025, with Jamie Collins serving as interim between the two appointments. Edwards, who had previously guided Luton Town from the Championship to the Premier League, could not arrest the decline. Wolves did not win a league game until January, by which point the damage was already done. Their final tally of 20 points from 38 games is one of the lowest recorded in Premier League history.
There were moments of genuine quality in the second half of the season. Wolves drew with champions Arsenal and recorded wins over Aston Villa and Liverpool, performances that showed the squad was capable of competing on its best days. The problem was that those days came far too rarely and far too late. For Arokodare personally, the post-January period was more productive as he started to build a working understanding with the players around him, but he could not save a season that had been defined by its opening months. Besiktas and Trabzonspor are among the clubs already linked with a summer move for the Nigerian, with reports suggesting Wolves would sanction a loan departure given their current market value estimate for the player has dropped to around 18 million euros. Supporters wanting to track the Championship clubs circling Wolves’ squad can compare pre-season odds via the Bet9ja YOHAIG welcome offer before the new campaign begins.
What Comes Next
Arokodare’s future will almost certainly be resolved before the start of pre-season. At 25, and with his market value having dipped from the fee Wolves paid, there is a strong argument for him to move to a club that can offer him regular starts and a more stable environment. His physical profile, six feet six inches tall, strong in the air and capable of holding up play, remains attractive, but it needs to be deployed within a system that suits him. Wolves’ relegation should not define his career, but the next 12 months will go a long way toward determining whether this chapter becomes a detour or a turning point.
📌 Did You Know?
- Tolu Arokodare was born on November 23, 2000, in Nigeria, making him 25 years old at the end of the 2025/26 season. He stands 1.98 metres tall and weighs 97 kilograms, making him one of the physically largest strikers in the Premier League this season.
- Before joining KRC Genk, Arokodare spent two years on loan at Amiens SC in Ligue 2, France, where he scored 21 goals. That spell followed an earlier loan at FC Koln in the Bundesliga, giving him experience in four different European football cultures before his Premier League move.
- Arokodare’s very first professional contract in Europe came at Valmiera FC in Latvia in 2019, where he scored 22 goals in 34 appearances at the age of 18. That early record in Latvian football attracted the attention of Bundesliga scouts and set in motion a chain of moves that eventually led to England.
- Wolves’ total of 20 points from 38 Premier League games in 2025/26 is one of the lowest tallies in the division’s history. Their three wins and 24 defeats, along with a goal difference of minus 37, places this campaign among the most difficult in the club’s top-flight history.
- Rob Edwards, who managed Wolves from November 2025 onward, previously guided Luton Town to promotion from the Championship to the Premier League via the 2022/23 playoff final. That experience of navigating second tier football will be directly relevant to Wolves’ task in the 2026/27 Championship season.
- Arokodare scored his first international goal for Nigeria against Russia in a friendly in June 2025, just months before his Wolves move. He has since earned more Super Eagles caps and remains in Eric Chelle’s plans despite his difficult club season, with Chelle prioritising physical presence among his forward options.
- KRC Genk, the Belgian club that sold Arokodare to Wolves, have a strong history of developing Nigerian strikers for European clubs. Odion Ighalo and Uchenna Kanu both passed through the Belgian Pro League pathway before establishing themselves in higher-profile European leagues, a route Arokodare is now navigating from a more difficult position.
