Austrian defender Georg Margreitter hit out at the attitude of the club's top players and suggested they lacked hunger and were happy to remain "cushy" in the Championship rather than attempt to win promotion back to the Premier League.

Margreitter also hinted that Player of the Year Bakary Sako could leave, with interest from Fulham.

"Our problem lay in the dressing room," said Margreitter, who has played just one League game as a substitute since his £500,000 arrival from Austria Vienna last summer.

"Too many players were satisfied. They earn a great deal of money and drive big cars, and they are content with their lot. The hunger that young players bring to a team was simply not there.

"An attitude like that from a club's leading players is fatal. You could see this in training – quality on paper is not enough.

"When the players were in the Premier League they got a spanking week after week. Some of them probably didn't want to go back up, preferring a cushy life in the Championship.

"I have never experienced anything like it. At Austria Vienna everyone was hungry and wanted to win games."

Margreitter claimed the club were too quick to get rid of the man who signed him, Stale Solbakken, and reverted to a more direct style.

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"We had a big and well-balanced squad, and Solbakken got us to play cultured football rather than kick and rush," he said.

"The club was probably too impatient in just giving him six months.

"Dean Saunders then enforced the traditional English virtues, and they did not work.

"The negative spiral continued dragging us down."

Speaking in an interview in his native Austria, Margreitter believes Wolves now need a clearout of players to enable the club to move forward after relegation to League One.

"The club has to be set back on its feet, and there has to be a clear-out," he said. "Bakary Sako could end up going to Fulham for several million pounds – not bad for a player who's been relegated."