- Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Gary O’Neil has endured a mixed start to his tenure at Molineux.
- The 40-year-old replaced Julen Lopetegui with less than a week before the Premier League season’s kick-off.
- Wolves welcome West Midlands rivals Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O’Neil “deserves quite a bit of credit” at Molineux, as Sky Sports reporter Dharmesh Sheth provides GIVEMESPORT with an internal development on his future at the club.
Wolves have endured a mixed start to the campaign, sitting in 15th place, three points above the Premier League’s relegation zone.
Wolves manager news – Gary O’Neil
Wolves endured a tumultuous summer transfer window, having seen some of their most prized assets depart alongside their manager, Julen Lopetegui. The Spanish head coach has since cited that he felt the club would be unable to break the top half of the Premier League given a change in transfer strategy, with Wanderers requiring a profit in the transfer window to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.
Wolves appointed O’Neil less than a week before their opening game of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford. The 40-year-old inherited a squad that had been gutted from top to bottom, with Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore among the key names to have left. O’Neil would later oversee the departure of midfielder Matheus Nunes to Manchester City, who left in a club-record sale worth £53m.
In the final days of the market, Wanderers signed Libertad’s Enso Gonzalez, Girona and Uruguay centre-back Santiago Bueno, Man City midfielder Tommy Doyle and Strasbourg’s Jean-Ricner Bellegarde. The quartet joined third-choice goalkeeper Tom King and free agent Matt Doherty as Wanderers aimed to build a squad capable of keeping their heads above the water in the Premier League this season.
O’Neil has endured mixed results in his early days at the helm. He was dealt a challenging run of fixtures, including meetings with Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion, Liverpool and Manchester City. Four points earned from a victory over Everton and a draw at Luton Town hadn’t quelled fears of a relegation battle. But last weekend’s battling display against Pep Guardiola’s treble holders resulted in a deserved 2-1 victory for the Black Country outfit.
The former AFC Bournemouth manager has got the best out of Pedro Neto and Hwang Hee-chan, with the duo having bagged a combined six goals between them. Journalist Dean Jones this week suggested to GIVEMESPORT that Wolves will be optimistic of causing another upset when they welcome West Midlands rivals Aston Villa to Molineux on Sunday.
O’Neil is not currently under pressure – Dharmesh Sheth
Sheth has suggested that O’Neil has done a valiant job given the circumstances and fixtures Wolves were handed towards the start of the season. The Sky Sports reporter understands that the Wanderers boss faces no immediate pressure over his job. He told GIVEMESPORT:
“You had the situation where they played well against Liverpool and ended up losing that game. And they beat Manchester City as well. All of those results, and I think more so the performances that some of them have shown, given what happened during the summer transfer window, including losing the likes of Nunes to Manchester City, I think O’Neil has built up a lot of credit so far with Wolves.
“Yes, you will get fans who say this is not good enough, but they’ve got to take a step back and look at Wolves’ situation during the summer and what O’Neil inherited. He inherited a squad where he only had two weeks to change until the end of the transfer window and hadn’t trained any of these players. So, I think O’Neil deserves quite a bit of credit, and from what I’m hearing, I don’t think he is under pressure just now.”
What have others said about O’Neil’s time at Wolves?
Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs has recently revealed that he has been “blown away” by O’Neil’s coaching methods on his arrival at Molineux when speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live this week. Hobbs appointed Lopetegui’s replacement and feels vindicated in his selection so far. Meanwhile, Wolves centre-back and captain Max Kilman has claimed that the quality of O’Neil’s training methods have been “phenomenal” and that it is only a matter of time before the side starts picking up results.
Therefore, it’s clear that O’Neil has earned the respect of those inside Molineux. However, he will feel that he must back this up with results in upcoming fixtures with Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Newcastle United to alleviate any imminent relegation fears.
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