Yahoo Sport 
Vitor Pereira to Wolves latest: CV, transfer history and philosophy
It has been a long journey for Vitor Pereira to get to Molineux.
The 56-year-old former midfielder is now runaway favourite to replace Gary O'Neil as head coach at Wolves. He has coached in Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Germany, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, winning trophies along the way but this will be a first post in England.
He is perhaps best remembered for his time in charge at Porto, where he took over from Chelsea-bound Andre Villas-Boas in the summer of 2011. He won the league title in both of his seasons and was interviewed for the Everton job - sparking protests due to his inexperience in the Premier League - before continuing his career in the Middle East.
READ MORE: Vitor Pereira protest, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spotted - Wolves next boss contenders
READ MORE: Matheus Cunha breaks silence after Wolves post-match chaos amid Gary O'Neil sacking
In Portugal he is revered as "one of the most successive active coaches" and that spell at Porto, where he got the best out of players such as Joao Moutinho, is probably the highlight of his CV to date - but he says every step has helped to mould him into the man who could soon be gracing the Premier League touchline.
He was asked to define his approach in an interview with Marca recently and said: "I am a coach who is very focused on tactics and strategy, on details. As for personality, I am demanding. I like my team to be aggressive with and without the ball. I like a well-played game. For me, winning is not enough. You have to win with merit and quality.
"I like art and football, for me, is an art. Coaching is like creating something expressing my personality, but at the same time trying to stimulate the footballers in their roles on the field.
"Porto was an important period in my life because it marked the beginning of my international career. We had a very strong group. We won two leagues, losing only one game, which shows that we were a very consistent team. We played a dominant, quality football.
"However, in China, with Shanghai Port, I had a very big challenge. Guangzhou Evergrande had won seven titles in a row and our team didn't know what it was like to win a league. We did it and it was a great thing. We will forever go down in the history of Chinese football. Olympiacos, on the other hand, is a great club that allowed us to win titles. We won the Cup and the League, but yes, the strongest team I have ever coached was Porto."
It has surprised the Portugal media that Pereira is yet to coach in one of Europe's big five leagues.
But he said: "I'm probably a bit to blame. I don't have the patience to wait for the right opportunity to come along. For me, football is like breathing and when I start to run out of air, I have to go back to the 'pitch'. I'm a bit calmer now, but I know I'll be back soon. If a project in a big league comes along, fine, but if not, I'm not going to wait around."
He added: "I left Porto by my own decision. I didn't want to renew my contract because I had been at Porto for eight years, five in the academy and three in the first team. My intention, when I didn't renew my contract, was to go to England to coach Everton, but in the end it didn't happen and I went to Saudi Arabia because I wanted to financially guarantee the future of my family."
There are some familiar names among the players he has signed along the way.
In September, he took Daniel Podence from Wolves to Al Shabab; he signed Marko Arnautovic for Shanghai in 2019 - where he worked with Hulk and Oscar; Martin Skrtel, Nani and Robin van Persie at Fenerbahce; Danilo at Porto, where he also worked with James Rodriguez and Jackson Martinez.
Whoever takes over at Wolves had a warning from O'Neil that they should try to add physical presence to the squad in the January window.
And he will clearly need all his experience to find a way to keep Wolves in the Premier League.
He said in an interview with Coaches' Voice: "My beginnings as Porto coach were not easy. I faced a lot of criticism and mistrust from the Portista community itself — the Porto fans. Before I became the head coach I was assistant to André Villas-Boas; I inherited his job when he left for Chelsea.
"No former assistant ever succeeded in becoming Porto’s head coach. My story is unique at the club. Mind you, the pressure I was under was enormous. My most relevant coaching experience until then had been at Santa Clara in the Portuguese second division.
"The two consecutive league titles in the two years I was in charge perfectly completed my cycle at Porto. After eight years at the club, I felt it was time to seek new experiences. At Porto, I had been youth coach and then assistant coach, before I had the opportunity to be head coach. It was almost as if I was exclusively a Porto coach. As if I belonged to the ‘Porto brand’ of coaches. I wanted to test myself elsewhere, try new challenges and learn in different contexts.
"That is what I have been doing since then. I have made my own way, working with different styles of football. Now I am a much more experienced coach. What hasn’t changed is my passion for football."
