Gary O’Neil reflects on his managerial career so far, his time at Wolves, challenges he’s faced, and what the future holds.
Despite a promising start, including some big wins over top teams, Wolverhampton Wanderers were 19th in the Premier League when he was sacked, ending his 15 month spell in charge.
It came 18 hours after a 2-1 defeat to Ipswich in mid-December 2024. And despite chairman Jeff Shi’s public support and plans to provide transfer funds, the loss, and troubling scenes in and around the time, Mario Lemina’s outburst, Jose Sa’s row with fans, Rayan Ait-Nouri’s red card and Matheus Cunha’s clash with security proved too much.
Recent poor form, including 11 defeats in 16 games, a 4-2 loss to Bournemouth, and a heavy defeat at Everton, sealed O’Neil’s fate.
Fans mainly criticised the ownership, but there was also some aimed at O’Neil, from his tactics to losing the dressing room.
Wolves appointed Vitor Pereira, strongly hinted money needed to be spent, managed to avoid the drop, finishing 16th. They were languishing in the relegation zone in late January, but their campaign had petered out as the season was coming to an end, after an excellent run between February and April.
In June 2025, sporting director Matt Hobbs left the club, with it not working out and more power to Pereira.
The sacking of Gary O’Neil before Christmas, continued a pattern of Wolves previously replacing managers mid-season, Bruno Lage with Julen Lopetegui when in a similar relegation battle two years prior, proving a change can work despite limited funds.
O’Neil criticised the ownership for losing “£200m of talent,” including Max Kilman, Pedro Neto, Ruben Neves, and Matheus Nunes, whose sales raised nearly £200m.
Financial constraints due to Premier League profit and sustainability rules have forced Wolves to sell key players, moving away from their past success of consecutive 7th place finishes and a Europa League quarter-final.
O’Neil’s departure reflected Wolves’ struggle to stabilise and find a new identity amid these challenges. But, with the appointment of Vitor Pereira, and having seen how he’s transformed the club, giving them reason to be excited going forward.
O’Neil spent a load of time showing clips of his work with Pedro Neto in training. Working on his crossing and making his movement less predictable. A huge blow when he left Wolves last summer. Neto with 3 goals already for Chelsea at the CWChttps://t.co/IllUA1czCl
— Jacob Steinberg
(@JacobSteinberg) June 29, 2025
O’Neil these days is using his time out to study set pieces, visit other sports teams, and refine his approach.
He avoids the term “philosophy,” instead going with adaptability over rigid tactics.
O’Neil said, per the Guardian, that he worked closely with players like Pedro Neto and Matheus Cunha to improve their game, though he was disappointed by their sales.
He acknowledges emotional moments in press conferences but aims to balance honesty with professionalism.
Now, he’s preparing for his next challenge, focusing on growth and resilience.
The journey’s been pretty high speed,” Gary O’Neil said on the start to his managerial career.
“When you’re in work it’s different because there’s always another massive game coming, whereas this has really given me time to have a deep dive into everything. The real benefit is the chance to breathe.
“It’s been two and a bit full-on seasons of Premier League football straight in.
“I don’t think you’ll find many people in any industry who feel they’ve hit their peak after two years. I knew there were going to be gaps because that’s the journey. You close your gaps the longer you’re in it.”
On the debate around a manager’s philosophy, he said: “I don’t like the word.
“The time you use your philosophy the most is actually in the job interview. In the two jobs I’ve gone into we’ve had to be incredibly adaptable.
“I have a real clear way in how I want my team to play. When I got to Wolves there wasn’t all the components there that would have fitted into exactly what I wanted this to be. It had been a back five for a very long time.”
His side, in his first season, produced such results like the doubles over Chelsea and Tottenham, a win at West Brom in the FA Cup and a victory over Man City: “You go through the goals we’ve scored, some of the quality, some of the results,” O’Neil says.
“Even the Fulham game last season, so much was off the training ground. There’s a win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge when we got four moves we’d worked on since we got there.
“If you only focus on the end, you can convince yourself that it was an unsuccessful experience, but it wasn’t. We stayed at Wolves for a very long time. We’ve got that whole group of players from different cultures to buy into my way.”
On working with Pedro Neto and Matheus Cunha in training: “I was fortunate that Matheus and Pedro were both at an age where they were still ready to lap that stuff up.”
On selling Neto to Chelsea in the summer of 2024: “It was a tough phone call.
“We’d had a fantastic pre-season. It had been fairly quiet around him. We’d discussed that we might lose him. But then there’s not too much going on. We’d started to develop his relationship with Nélson Semedo on that side. Then Chelsea come and there was only going to be one outcome.”
On the pressure rising at the start of 2024/25 season: “No matter how we played we still found a way to concede goals.
“Some of the data shows that we were still improving but we were never able to get a result. We’re better than Newcastle for 70 minutes at home and lost 2-1. We took Manchester City close and concede a corner in the last minute.”
“A lot was down to the bad luck of us missing people with aerial presence during that period,” he says. “The more you concede, the more the confidence starts to drop. But things not going well forces your focus on to them. In my time between Bournemouth and Wolves, would I have been looking at set pieces much? Probably not. But because of how Wolves finished up it increases my focus. We’ll definitely be much better at them the next time we go in.”
On results not being good enough: “I felt we needed to get to January. We needed to plug the hole at the back. We signed a lot of players in the summer, but a lot of young players. We were going to try and have some older ones ready to go in. I always felt like we’d have enough to turn it around but in the end you accept your fate.
“I think the players were incredibly frustrated on the inside and in the dressing room,” O’Neil says. “We were still 100% together. There wasn’t any letup at all. That West Ham game, we gave everything. But there were issues at the time, and the club were able to fix them in January.”
Looking ahead, and dealing with his emotions: “I try to be honest.
“I’m really calm on the sideline. But I think it is important that you have some emotion in the job. It can be powerful for players. I’ll always try and find the right balance and it will have been on my list of things that I looked at in my time out.
“There’s been some honest conversations with myself in the mirror, with some of my coaching staff, with people that I trust around what we need to do. We’re two years in and it’s gone very quickly. Sort of like a high-speed train. You’re on it and there’s no real opportunity to get off. But now that we’ve managed to have a little debrief and figure out what the next one looks like, you pick the next train. You get ready to go again.”
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