Carry On Regardless

How Wolves and Gary O’Neil are still treading this unlikely path

It was shortly after the full-time whistle at Goodison Park a week ago that the toxicity reached a peak. As Gary O’Neil approached his players to gather them away from the angry visiting fans, following an abject 4-0 defeat to Everton, the head coach was greeted with some of the most unpleasant chants any Wolves manager has suffered. The visiting supporters had spent the previous hour or more reeling off odes to their favourites from happier times. The message was clear.

Eleven days earlier it had been a different scene altogether, when a fist-pumping O’Neil lapped up the cheers from the packed Putney End at Craven Cottage after Wolves’ best performance of the season, a 4-1 win at Fulham.

After that victory in West London the Wolves hierarchy felt a certain amount of vindication at weathering the storm and holding their nerve by keeping the head coach in situ. Without a win in the opening 10 games, Wolves finally broke their duck at home to Southampton. Recognition that the club had endured a tough opening run of fixtures and acknowledgement of some untimely injuries ensured O’Neil enjoyed the full backing of chairman Jeff Shi and sporting director Matt Hobbs throughout the winless run.

Team selection at Fulham, in the wake of further injuries, proved inspired with captain Mario Lemina putting in a flawless performance in the centre of defence, screened by an impressive Andre in a holding midfield role. There was a genuine positivity coursing through the club after such an emphatic win against strong opposition.

But soon, another jolt. The 4-2 reverse at home to Bournemouth was littered with sloppy mistakes and the continued use of Lemina in the heart of defence back-fired. The good work and goodwill of the success at Fulham quickly dissipated and doubts began to creep in at board level.

Then came Everton. A team which had not scored in the four previous games blew Wolves away with a set-piece dominance that they could not handle. It was an embarrassing surrender and the die was cast from that moment on. Wolves began an active search for a replacement. On Friday a report from Spain, which has since been verified, suggested Wolves had made an initial enquiry about the availability of West Bromwich Albion boss Carlos Corberan. Other names were also in the frame, and with no game until Monday evening there was a window of opportunity to accelerate the process.

But no plans got far enough down the line to put Wolves in a position where they needed to make a change before the West Ham United fixture. With O’Neil retaining the support of his players, the dressing room dynamic has never been a factor in hastening any decision. In fact, quite the opposite. Without the support of key figures in the first team it is arguable that O’Neil may not have survived that initial winless run.

But it was now an open secret that the search for a replacement had begun, with press reports continuing over the weekend ahead of Wolves’ trip to the capital on Monday evening. On another night Wolves may have taken something from the match at the London Stadium. Once again, VAR played its part in foiling O’Neil’s side and there was none of vitriol from the stands at full-time that we saw up on Merseyside. If anything, apathy had set in, with supporters now resigned to the team’s fate.

After the match, O’Neil – in his eyes, sensing one final chance to make his point - spoke deliberately and at length, outlining the outgoing transfers during his stay at the club. He was adamant, if this was to be his final game, that he was going to articulate clearly and unequivocally the transfer restraints he has been operating under.

The first team squad had Tuesday morning off and Compton was quiet, but for a television cameraman and reporter stationed outside the main gates from sunrise. If there was an early anticipation that a decision would be made on the manager’s future, that soon disappeared and by lunchtime the tv crew had left.

There was no Damascene conversion in the boardroom on Tuesday when news broke that the head coach would be given more time to put things right. The decision on O’Neil’s future has for the past week been inextricably linked to the club’s capabilities of finding a suitable alternative rather than any immediate result on the pitch.

What nobody wanted was a repeat of the interim manager situation which enveloped the club two years ago, when Wolves wrote off six weeks of the season with Steve Davis and James Collins given the unenviable task of steadying the ship after Bruno Lage’s departure. Shi and Hobbs rightly identified that dismissing a manager now serves no beneficial purpose if there is nobody in place to come in. What has also been taken into account is O’Neil’s continuing strong bond with the squad.

What we did see on Monday was a flashpoint in other areas, with captain Mario Lemina being restrained by Toti and then confronting first team coach Shaun Derry. Harmony broke out the following day when Lemina took to social media to clear the air. It would be naïve to suggest tempers do not become fraught within the first team environment when the team is in such a desperate run of form. A swift resolution to the on-field spat was important. One less problem to worry about.

With the hierarchy ruling out a caretaker manager, O’Neil is now effectively auditioning for his own job. Despite the results and furore of the past week and a half, he has shown great dignity going about his role to the best of his ability and unmoved – in public at least – by the enveloping situation. But he is nobody’s fool and, as Erik ten Hag discovered at Old Trafford, it is not easy to continue working when successors have actively been pursued.

The head coach has expressed his sadness at the deterioration in his own relationship with the fans. Despite pundits lining up in the media to praise O’Neil’s work so far, it is the paying spectators who watch Wolves most regularly (and at their own considerable expense) so it is perhaps not unreasonable that they have become frustrated with a team that appears to drift in and out of games, pressing the self-destruct button at the worst possible moments.

O’Neil’s habit of publicly downplaying the experience and quality of his squad, as a whole, has also rankled. It is certainly weak in key areas but should still be good enough to pull clear of the bottom three in a season when Southampton and Ipswich Town have been falling over themselves to find ways of losing matches.

And so to the immediate and long-term future. There is a chance that all this actually works out. Shi and Hobbs have always remained keen to give O’Neil the most time possible to fulfil his coaching potential at Molineux, and have invested their faith - and a long contract – in his abilities. While it would take some turnaround in playing fortunes to halt this season’s decline, a genuine and lasting upturn in fortunes under O’Neil would be the best possible outcome for everyone.

In the meantime, plans will continue behind the scenes for a smooth succession whenever the moment arrives. Who knows when that will be. It is hard to envisage a home defeat on Saturday eliciting anything other than a change, but if Wolves can string some results together on the pitch then faith will gradually be restored. Whoever is in charge come January will benefit from some squad strengthening in defensive areas.

What Shi and Hobbs must address is the process that has made finding a path forward so difficult. Is the current environment geared towards making a success of Wolves and how attractive is the manager’s job? There are only 20 such posts in the Premier League – the strongest league in the world. It should be a coveted role. Does a new long-term first team strategy need to take shape from here if Wolves are to extend their impressive seven top flight seasons in a row? There is certainly time to turn the corner, but the dramatic events of the past week need to be put to bed one way or another. For now, O’Neil has been left to carry on regardless.