| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… 09:42 - Jun 21 with 6096 views | itfcjoe |
https://www.nytimes.com/athlet
On Sunday morning, O’Neil, who had returned to his family home in Kent for a flying visit after the Ipswich defeat, took a phone call from Hobbs to inform him of Wolves’ decision.
It would not have come as a shock given his departure has looked increasingly inevitable for much of this season. Even at the height of his Wolves success, the cracks were appearing.
In a single month — February 2024 — O’Neil’s Wolves claimed famous, emphatic Premier League victories at Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, completing the double over both ‘Big Six’ clubs, stood toe to toe with Manchester United before losing a 4-3 Molineux thriller in stoppage time, and defeated Brighton to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
They saw off Sheffield United for good measure and, as spring arrived with some fans dreaming of pushing for a spot in Europe, it felt like players, management, club and supporters were in harmony for the first time since Nuno Espirito Santo departed, drawing a line under the club’s most successful spell since the early 1980s.
Yet already the seeds of the decline had been sown.
The failures of the January transfer window, when O’Neil was confident of adding a striker to his squad, only to discover in the final days of the window that Wolves would not sanction any of the deals on the table, left the former Bournemouth boss disenchanted with life at Molineux.
Neither he nor the Wolves hierarchy could have foreseen the scale of the injury crisis that robbed him of his first-choice forward line for much of the final third of the campaign, with Pedro Neto, Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha all injured for several weeks.
But O’Neil felt his warnings that Wolves were risking their immediate future by not adding understudies had gone unheeded. The result was a quarter-final defeat to Coventry with raw teenager Nathan Fraser leading the line, combined with a slide from the outskirts of the European race to the bottom half of the Premier League table with just two wins in their final 12 league games.
In a worrying echo of the breakdown in trust between Wolves and O’Neil’s predecessor Lopetegui, O’Neil’s confidence in the owners’ ability and willingness to back him was never restored.
People familiar with the situation say O’Neil was angry for much of the transfer window due to what he saw as broken promises over his desire for a centre-back and a winger who could step straight into his first team, replacing the departed Maximilian Kilman and Pedro Neto.
Instead, striker Jorgen Strand Larsen is the only summer signing to have cemented a place in the team, while several other fairly costly signings were young players with an eye to Wolves adding value in the future.
After the closure of the window, O’Neil’s anger was said to have subsided as he resolved to make the best of the squad he had.
But a combination of tricky early fixtures — the toughest opening of any club in the league based on Opta’s Power Rankings — and squad deficiencies meant Wolves’ season spiralled out of control, not helped by O’Neil’s decision to change their playing style based on signings he expected but which never arrived.
In the end, he left Wolves with goodwill still intact. His relationship with Hobbs remained especially strong, with O’Neil considering that Hobbs had kept up his end of the bargain by lining up deals for first-team players that ultimately went unsanctioned.
Senior players also remained supportive of O’Neil, but their loss of discipline in recent weeks, from Jose Sa venturing into the crowd during the defeat to Bournemouth to Mario Lemina’s meltdown at West Ham and the ugly scenes after the weekend defeat to Ipswich involving Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri, suggested that while O’Neil retained support, he had lost authority.
That realisation, combined with continued dreadful results, left Wolves with no choice but to make a change. Even senior figures at Wolves accepted that O’Neil was to a large extent a victim of circumstance.
The job he did last season in taking over a squad rocked by Lopetegui’s eve-of-the-season departure and leading Wolves well clear of relegation trouble while claiming memorable wins and big-name scalps earned him widespread respect in the Molineux hierarchy.
And the club’s decision-makers were painfully aware that those key injuries at the end of last season, combined with a horrible set of fixtures at the start of this one, helped destroy the momentum he had created.
Yet there were also decisions that haunted the young, inexperienced head coach.
He was heavily involved in the summer in the appointment of Jack Wilson as Wolves’ first set-piece coach, only to go back on the decision and move Wilson out three months later, with people familiar with the matter saying O’Neil decided he had not integrated well into the backroom staff.
Both with and without Wilson, Wolves’ failure to defend set pieces has been a constant problem.
That saga raised questions about O’Neil’s judgement, as did the replacement just a few days ago of Lemina as captain following his post-match meltdown at West Ham after O’Neil had chosen the Gabon international in the summer to replace Kilman as skipper. Lemina, 31, grappled with West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen after the 2-1 defeat, then clashed with team-mates Nelson Semedo and Toti and pushed first-team coach Shaun Derry.
The change of tactics and shape, including a switch to a back four, at the start of the season was also a risk O’Neil did not need to make and invited criticism given the previous use of three central defenders and a counter-attacking style had worked well last season until injuries struck, with the gap between the club’s expected goals for and against trending in the wrong direction this season.
With O’Neil increasingly looking unable to solve the immediate defensive and man-management problems he faced, the Wolves hierarchy concluded that a figure with more experience and gravitas was needed.
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:00 - Jun 21 with 1297 views | FrimleyBlue |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 12:34 - Jun 21 by nrb1985 |
Unlike you to have a negative take mate.
Good dollop of unfounded conjecture and speculation in there too for good measure - vintage Frimley. |
Apologies
wolves players fought really hard for him. I mistook their behaviours when it was just passion om display. [Post edited 21 Jun 13:03]
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:52 - Jun 21 with 1225 views | Illinoisblue |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 11:47 - Jun 21 by Waig |
I can’t believe people are still going to back this clown, let’s get him gone asap.
Players won’t warm to him after McKenna, you just know it. |
That’s the spirit. Who do you want as manager instead? |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:55 - Jun 21 with 1210 views | ITFC_Forever |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:52 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
That’s the spirit. Who do you want as manager instead? |
That Pep chap’s supposed to be good, and he’s not doing anything at the moment. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 14:03 - Jun 21 with 1188 views | Radlett_blue |
O'Neil is a very underwhelming appointment, but at least we're going to get it done & summer recruitment will be as important next season as the new head coach. IMO he's likelier to keep us up than OGS, who only did well with an expensive Man U squad. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 14:20 - Jun 21 with 1142 views | nrb1985 |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:52 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
That’s the spirit. Who do you want as manager instead? |
Think he’d seen that Pep had stood down and put 2+2 together when KM resigned. |  | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 14:26 - Jun 21 with 1136 views | Axeldalai_lama |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:52 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
That’s the spirit. Who do you want as manager instead? |
Ooh ooh can I answer this.
"It's not my job to find anyone, but there is definitely someone who is great in the premier League, great at relegation battles, great at being a small fish in a big pond, great at playing amazing football, really well respected and thought of in the game, with loads of kudos and contacts for new players to come in, and they definitely would have wanted to come to us but it's all the clubs fault for not finding this person and not 'selling them the dream'. " |  | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 14:41 - Jun 21 with 1106 views | Gary_Knows |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:52 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
That’s the spirit. Who do you want as manager instead? |
Guarantee it’ll be the bloke from Norway, because his name sounds better. Managing a club that barely gets bigger crowds than Needham Market and has never managed outside Norway … but he did beat Man City once, so he’s definitely the answer. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 15:22 - Jun 21 with 1024 views | homer_123 |
"The failures of the January transfer window, when O’Neil was confident of adding a striker to his squad, only to discover in the final days of the window that Wolves would not sanction any of the deals on the table, left the former Bournemouth boss disenchanted with life at Molineux."
Sounds very Ipswich this season with Ashton putting targets in front of McKenna that were clearly not good enough. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 17:31 - Jun 21 with 940 views | bsw72 |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 10:03 - Jun 21 by FrimleyBlue |
People talk about how bad wolves were behind the scenes. It wasnt his fault etc
Fine
But proper respected managers have sides that will go through a brick wall for their manager
Town behind the scenes wasnt great last season. Yet KM still got his side mentally right for the fight
What did oneils wolves side do for him.. |
Support behind the scenes are dependent on more than just the manager, and it’s naive to think otherwise. O’Neil’s position had been significantly undermined by the wolves board which was clear to all including the players. So to compare the situation wolves were in with O’Neil in 2024 to us at any time under McKenna and Ashton is like comparing apples to oranges. |  | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 20:16 - Jun 21 with 849 views | GrangeBlue |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 10:57 - Jun 21 by radiogaga |
I do understand some of the concerns regarding O’ Neil, although I think they are being over-amplified above what has largely been a good managerial career to date. Wolves requires context with their ownership - I think Gamechanger compared to Fosun at Wolves is chalk and cheese, McKenna generally got the support and resources he needed and I see no reason to think O’ Neil will be any different/ with survival the main priority, it would be nuts for that to be the case.
If it’s true that Ashton has viewed him as a longer term successor to KM for some time, and following interviews and all necessary due diligence this is the decision we have reached, I would have to trust the club and trust the process. This is not a club that rushes into rash decisions now. |
Good managerial career to date? One season at Bournemouth - sacked. 18 months at Wolves - sacked. | | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 20:46 - Jun 21 with 818 views | benrhyddingblue |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 11:47 - Jun 21 by Waig |
I can’t believe people are still going to back this clown, let’s get him gone asap.
Players won’t warm to him after McKenna, you just know it. |
You seem to know a lot about what is going to happen! Players won’t warm to him after McKenna - that being the same McKenna you wanted to be sacked in February. Bit of advice please stay away from Portman Road and every other Ipswich game now and forevermore - you’re the kind of supporter we really don’t need ever. And you’re continued ‘I know this’ cr@p is very boring. You don’t actually know anything and you keep popping up here with same rubbish like the proverbial bad penny. | | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 22:07 - Jun 21 with 762 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
Unfortunately the one line that stands out there for me was that he had hoped to get an elusive striker through the door but failed to do so.
That has been such a recurring theme for us over the past few transfer windows (even allowing for having got a couple in as well), that it just looks likely to be another repeat for O'Neill. Bearing in mind we really need 2 strikers of Premier League quality it doesn't bode well to me. Hopefully I am wrong and we will get two in. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 07:57 - Jun 22 with 669 views | Steve_M |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 11:47 - Jun 21 by Waig |
I can’t believe people are still going to back this clown, let’s get him gone asap.
Players won’t warm to him after McKenna, you just know it. |
The same McKenna you wanted sacked last season?
McKenna out by Waig 21 Feb 16:49It’s time, I’m sorry. He’s finished here, too many mistakes, dreadful transfer windows obsession with wingers (he inherited Cooks great work don’t forget)
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 07:57 - Jun 22 with 668 views | Steve_M |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 22:07 - Jun 21 by Nthsuffolkblue |
Unfortunately the one line that stands out there for me was that he had hoped to get an elusive striker through the door but failed to do so.
That has been such a recurring theme for us over the past few transfer windows (even allowing for having got a couple in as well), that it just looks likely to be another repeat for O'Neill. Bearing in mind we really need 2 strikers of Premier League quality it doesn't bode well to me. Hopefully I am wrong and we will get two in. |
And that's really not a managerial failing, either at Wolves or here. | |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 08:12 - Jun 22 with 645 views | Churchman |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 11:47 - Jun 21 by Waig |
I can’t believe people are still going to back this clown, let’s get him gone asap.
Players won’t warm to him after McKenna, you just know it. |
You wanted McKenna sacked throughout last season. Now you want this bloke fired before he’s had his first swivel in the comfy chair.
Who exactly do you want given Guardiola and Klopp are not available? |  | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 08:39 - Jun 22 with 611 views | IPSWICHFANITFC |
It appears like the ownership model/hierarchy was the biggest problem, which then usually filters down the chain.
The Wolves changing room sounds like it did not have the best characters when things started to go bad, ultimately ending up in it all spiralling out of control - until Vitor Pereira got a hold of it.
In my opinion it will be a case of giving O'Neil time. He will be inheriting a good squad of characters, with limited quality for the Premier League. More importantly, it is the squad that McKenna built and not his own. I imagine O'Neil will set us up to counter attack and line up in a back 3, so the transition period for this take time but probably make us more competitive at this level. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 08:43 - Jun 22 with 601 views | NthQldITFC |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 20:16 - Jun 21 by GrangeBlue |
Good managerial career to date? One season at Bournemouth - sacked. 18 months at Wolves - sacked. |
Welcome to the forum, GrangeBlue. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 15:31 - Jun 22 with 499 views | southnorfolkblue |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 10:03 - Jun 21 by FrimleyBlue |
People talk about how bad wolves were behind the scenes. It wasnt his fault etc
Fine
But proper respected managers have sides that will go through a brick wall for their manager
Town behind the scenes wasnt great last season. Yet KM still got his side mentally right for the fight
What did oneils wolves side do for him.. |
KM basically had a League 1 squad though, who had been on the journey with him. Established Premier League players are a completely different beast. It’s only 12 months ago that we had a player effectively refuse to play. Clubs much bigger than Wolves have had similar problems. | |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 15:38 - Jun 22 with 478 views | hype313 |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 13:52 - Jun 21 by Illinoisblue |
That’s the spirit. Who do you want as manager instead? |
He gave me Poch the other day.
Just goes to show..... |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 17:50 - Jun 22 with 362 views | Exiled2Surrey |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 10:01 - Jun 21 by tiptreeblue |
So he wasn't backed with the players he wanted as I suggested earlier today, But I don't think that's going to happen at Ipswich.
He made mistakes, but who doesn't, and now hopefully he's learnt from them. |
My reading of this was not that he will need to buy lots of expensive players, but that the owners were not honest with him about what they would support him with - I dont think that this the same situation here at all | | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:00 - Jun 22 with 350 views | Vic |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 10:30 - Jun 21 by ITFC_Forever |
What was wrong behind the scenes last season? Care to elaborate? |
Nah, thought not!
Come on Frimmers - defend you assertions old boy. |  |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:34 - Jun 22 with 317 views | Waig |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:00 - Jun 22 by Vic |
Nah, thought not!
Come on Frimmers - defend you assertions old boy. |
Can’t wait for all you forum regulars to be apologising to us in a few months time when all this unravels.
GON out | | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:45 - Jun 22 with 307 views | itfcjoe |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:34 - Jun 22 by Waig |
Can’t wait for all you forum regulars to be apologising to us in a few months time when all this unravels.
GON out |
Have you apologised to everyone for getting KMc so wrong this season? | |
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| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:54 - Jun 22 with 279 views | Axeldalai_lama |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:34 - Jun 22 by Waig |
Can’t wait for all you forum regulars to be apologising to us in a few months time when all this unravels.
GON out |
Oh mate, that's actually very sad. This much anger and spite against a team you support and it's fans and managers isn't healthy. | | | |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:55 - Jun 22 with 278 views | FrimleyBlue |
| The Athletic view of Gary O’Neil leaving Wolves… on 18:00 - Jun 22 by Vic |
Nah, thought not!
Come on Frimmers - defend you assertions old boy. |
Sorry i had meant to reply.
Starting with the summer
Having players leave who he didnt expect to leave
Being given players that didnt suit the system
The sammy S situation
The ashton farage stuff. Yes i know it didnt upset many. But there were players it reallt pssed off
Obv annoying things too. The postponed games
Etc etc | |
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