| Gary O'Neil 15:32 - Jun 11 with 3331 views | itfcjoe |
Surprised at how people's instant reactions are to be quite anti him, not to say he's one I'd be desperate to appoint - but can see why he'd be seen as a good candidate.
Was a coach at Bournemouth under Scott Parker for their Championship season when they got promoted. Scott Parker threw toys out of pram at end of window and O'Neil was given the job on 30th August - led them to comfortable safety and finished 15th, despite losing last 4 games when they were mathematically safe.
New owner took over mid season and sacked him and replaced him with Iraola, proved to be the right decision but keeping them up as a newly promoted team taking over one day before window shut was a fine achievement.
The following season, Julen Lopetegui resigned less than a week before the season started because the club were cutting right back on finances - sold Neves, , Collins, Coady, Nunes and Raul Jiminez for a combined £135m, let Traore and Moutinho leave on frees who had been big players and spent £45m on Cunha, plus a few million on 2-3 others but squad was much worse.
Kept them up comfortablya nd finished 14th, again slid back at end of season when safety was secured.
The following season turned into a shocker though, culminating in getting sacked after they lost at home to Ipswich - but budgets were cut again - Wolves raised over £100m from transfers and spent about £30m, wage bill cut and there just seemed a massive discipline problem that he couldn't get hold of.....players were acting out massively, so that was a failure and be interested to hear Wolves fans views on who was more to blame for that between playing staff and O'Neil; but can't see we've got a group here who would do that.
He played for Norwich for a couple of seasons but I can live with that personally.
But ultimately, he's gone in late in the close season to 2 clubs, one of which was newly promoted, and kept them both up comfortably which is the goal here. The only goal in reality, both clubs will have had low wage budgets, both squads were deemed not good enough by their incumbent manager and he managed to prove them wrong.
He may not be the long term answer, and may be better options out there, but struggling to see why he is rated so poorly by some? |  |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:36 - Jun 11 with 2440 views | hype313 |
Didn't he have a hissy fit and throw the Wolves board under the bus? I mean you could claim he had a point, but not really the kind of behaviour our ownership would look too fondly on. |  |
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| Turkey teeth, innit. (n/t) on 15:39 - Jun 11 with 2368 views | Bloots |
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| "....a smegma of a man” - TWTD User (Apr 2026) |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:39 - Jun 11 with 2375 views | Grundisburger |
I mean his record in the league isn’t the greatest, so really if we want to establish ourselves in the prem he should definitely not the first choice |  | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:40 - Jun 11 with 2357 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
The only year must of our fans would have been following him closely was 2024
Did seem to be a really bad feeling around Wolves even going into that year. Once they lost Cunha something felt inevitable about last season. That fanbase has been miserable for a while.
Had a decent record beforehand. |  |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:40 - Jun 11 with 2352 views | Kev_W |
I'd guess some of the reasons are around the way it ended at Wolves and his falling out with the player. However, I suspect the bigger reason is less tangible, that after KM it would feel a dull appointment not showing much imagination or ambition. O'Neil's record isn't bad but there isn't much in it to suggest he would be able to tackle the task facing the new manager. |  | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:41 - Jun 11 with 2306 views | J2BLUE |
Just really uninspiring. Might as well give it to Big Sam. |  | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:42 - Jun 11 with 2290 views | Zx1988 |
The fact that he's currently at Strasbourg is an interesting one as well.
With their position within the Chelsea setup, there's an argument that he was appointed there with a view to developing him to take over at Chelsea at some point. If that's the case, then the Chelsea hierarchy must have seen something in him. A bit like they did Rosenior. | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:42 - Jun 11 with 2272 views | itfcjoe |
If you compare him to Rosenior at Strasbourg too, Rosenior left at the exact midpoint of season
Rosenior - P17 W7 D3 L7 Pts 24
O'Neil - P17 W8 D5 L4 Pts 29
O'Neil also did their whole French Cup run where they got to semi final, and whilst Rosenior did Group Stage in Europe, O'Neil beat Rijeka and Mainz in the knockouts before falling 0-2 to Rayo Vallecano. | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:43 - Jun 11 with 2207 views | Dennyx4 |
I think the last season at Wolves will be in a lot of Ipswich fans minds. He had an absolute disaster, new manager came in and had the same team performing considerably better.
The team had serious discipline issues whilst he was there, and he either did not know how to correct it, or didnt want to. Again, less disciplinary issues for the replacement manager.
This is the only time he has been in the same league as us, as a manager and will be more noticeable for our fan base.
I am not sure the small Norwich connection, will help him either. It will likely be an appointment, that could divide the fan base, and that is not a great place to start. |  | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:44 - Jun 11 with 2200 views | itfcjoe |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:39 - Jun 11 by Grundisburger |
I mean his record in the league isn’t the greatest, so really if we want to establish ourselves in the prem he should definitely not the first choice |
Staying in it by hook or by crook for a year or two is the only way we can establish ourselves and he's managed to stay up twice coming into similar situations | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:45 - Jun 11 with 2167 views | BseaBlue |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:42 - Jun 11 by Zx1988 |
The fact that he's currently at Strasbourg is an interesting one as well.
With their position within the Chelsea setup, there's an argument that he was appointed there with a view to developing him to take over at Chelsea at some point. If that's the case, then the Chelsea hierarchy must have seen something in him. A bit like they did Rosenior. |
I'm not sure using Chelsea's hierarchy is a huge selling point at this moment in time... |  | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:45 - Jun 11 with 2167 views | ernie |
Perception of him is poor, dear boy. Nothing to do with what he hasn’t or has achieved. | | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:46 - Jun 11 with 2122 views | portmanking |
The lack of squad discipline thing is a big deal and is still talked about within the football industry.
He gave the players way too many days off. He wasn't very visible at the training ground. Ultimately, it unravelled very quickly for him in 24/25.
As you say, perhaps not as many bad apples at ITFC, but I still would rather someone with a little more.... presence and personality. [Post edited 11 Jun 15:54]
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:46 - Jun 11 with 2111 views | jas0999 |
Awful manager. Had a great squad at Wolves and started to do badly, he then threw everyone but himself under the bus. He’s simply not good enough. Having said that, there are remarkably worse options being linked, namely Rosenior and Edwards. Both are questionable at best. | | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:46 - Jun 11 with 2109 views | Dennyx4 |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:42 - Jun 11 by itfcjoe |
If you compare him to Rosenior at Strasbourg too, Rosenior left at the exact midpoint of season
Rosenior - P17 W7 D3 L7 Pts 24
O'Neil - P17 W8 D5 L4 Pts 29
O'Neil also did their whole French Cup run where they got to semi final, and whilst Rosenior did Group Stage in Europe, O'Neil beat Rijeka and Mainz in the knockouts before falling 0-2 to Rayo Vallecano. |
Not sure that overly supports the case, as wouldnt want Rosenior either. | | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:47 - Jun 11 with 2091 views | hype313 |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:45 - Jun 11 by BseaBlue |
I'm not sure using Chelsea's hierarchy is a huge selling point at this moment in time... |
Indeed, they haven't got a clue how to run a bath, let a lone a football club. | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:47 - Jun 11 with 2081 views | GlasgowBlue |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:39 - Jun 11 by Grundisburger |
I mean his record in the league isn’t the greatest, so really if we want to establish ourselves in the prem he should definitely not the first choice |
It's better than McKenna's in fairness. Kept two clubs in the Premier League. |  |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:48 - Jun 11 with 2057 views | Kev_W |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:44 - Jun 11 by itfcjoe |
Staying in it by hook or by crook for a year or two is the only way we can establish ourselves and he's managed to stay up twice coming into similar situations |
How similar though? He has to manage/coach a side moving up a division and in need of substantial additions and reshaping. Not sure he has that capability more someone who can steady an existing PL squad. | | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:50 - Jun 11 with 2011 views | Tractor_Buck |
He was front and centre when Fosun starting pulling the rug from underneath the team with player sales and budget cuts, and took the bullet from the fans and the press who didn't realise where the issues actually were at that point.
Don't forget, this is the leadership group that allowed their Women's team to come within one win of promotion to WSL2 in 24/25 before being forced to admit that they hadn't even applied for promotion and therefore weren't eligible.
Fosun were, and still are, the problem at Wolves, no matter who the manager is. The players revolted as well, possibly because of the instability at the club and possibly because of GON.
I just don't think that all of the problems at Wolves, or even some of them, were entirely down to him so I'd be interested to see how he does at a club with a stable backroom and board room.
Whether I'd want us to be that experiment, I'm not entirely sure but in Gamechanger we trust. [Post edited 11 Jun 15:57]
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:50 - Jun 11 with 1989 views | hype313 |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:48 - Jun 11 by Kev_W |
How similar though? He has to manage/coach a side moving up a division and in need of substantial additions and reshaping. Not sure he has that capability more someone who can steady an existing PL squad. |
It's going to come down to who do you trust to spend £120m Wisely, he had a shoestring at Wolves, but did bring in Strand Larsen and Andre, so not awful buys. | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:51 - Jun 11 with 1980 views | burnbudgiesburn |
Hmm, Chris Hughton kept Brighton just above the waterline when first promoted for a couple of seasons. But the PL feels even tougher now than it did back then. Maybe GON could do that.
I'll back anyone who is chosen, but it feels like we are in a position to appoint better? Is he the sort of manager who can attract players to the club? | | | |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:54 - Jun 11 with 1885 views | itfcjoe |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:48 - Jun 11 by Kev_W |
How similar though? He has to manage/coach a side moving up a division and in need of substantial additions and reshaping. Not sure he has that capability more someone who can steady an existing PL squad. |
He did it with Bournemouth who came up, their squad was more PL ready as had come straight back up after 3-4 previous PL seasons but were still a newly promoted club.
Was also signed by Mark Ashton as a player at Bristol City so there is a link | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:54 - Jun 11 with 1862 views | Illinoisblue |
He’d be definitely preferable to Rob Edwards but I hope we can do better than either of them. |  |
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| Gary O'Neil on 15:57 - Jun 11 with 1777 views | hype313 |
| Gary O'Neil on 15:54 - Jun 11 by Illinoisblue |
He’d be definitely preferable to Rob Edwards but I hope we can do better than either of them. |
Yep, I can't help feeling that the likes of Edwards and O'Neil are scraping the barrel somewhat, and that might be totally unfair, but given the opportunity available by us, a clean slate, full pre season and a decent warchest on offer, we could aim for better.
It's not a firefighting job. | |
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| Gary O'Neil on 16:02 - Jun 11 with 1652 views | Marshalls_Mullet |
I dont disagree, but I think he feels like part of the modern version of the bottom of the league managerial merry go round.
The new Pulis, Pardew, Allardyce.
I'm not against it, but would prefer a more adventurous appointment. |  |
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