It has been a frustrating start to the new season for Wolves defender Jonny Castro Otto, who still finds himself firmly on the fringes at Molineux.
Wanderers have made a good start to 2023/24 following a very chaotic summer that saw Julen Lopetegui leave and several key players sold in order to balance the books.
It was all change at the club, so for Wolves to now be sat in 12th position with 15 points and 10 clear from the relegation zone is really respectable.
One man who might have followed the likes of Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez and Nathan Collins out of the club is Jonny Castro Otto.
He opted to stay put – and it’s possible he will be regretting his decision…
Jonny Castro Otto is really struggling for minutes at Wolves
Once upon a time, Jonny was one of the first names on the team sheet at Wolves.
After arriving from Atletico Madrid, initially on loan, Jonny quickly became a firm favourite at Molineux for his ability to just turn in solid performances consistently.
He was a little bit like Cesar Azpilicueta, another versatile Spanish defender at Chelsea who would regularly deliver 7/10 performances at least, every single week.
But unfortunately, Jonny fell victim to two serious knee injuries at Wolves which have undoubtedly impacted him.
It has been such a shame, because he was Mr. Consistent in his early days, and sometimes now he looks like a player other teams will try to target.
That is of course, when he gets the chance to play, which has not been very often at all this season.
So far, £35,000-a-week man Jonny is one of the most scarcely used players in the squad for O’Neil, playing just four minutes in the Premier League against Manchester City at the end of September.
He started the two Carabao Cup games against Blackpool and Ipswich Town but with Wolves now out of that competition, it’s even more difficult for Jonny to get minutes.
Unfortunately for him, Rayan Ait-Nouri is perhaps in his best moment since coming to the club and is hugely admired by O’Neil, who believes ‘the sky is the limit’ for the youngster. Then there is Hugo Bueno, another amazingly talented young left-back.
Ominously for Jonny, summer signing Matt Doherty has also played at left wing-back this season.
It was reported at the end of the summer transfer window that Jonny actually wanted to stay at Wolves and fight for his place, despite the club being open to selling him. He even apparently did have offers to leave the club.
That was an admirable stance to stake from someone who is undeniably a magnificent professional.
But one does wonder if Jonny may now be regretting his decision to stick around, because it’s difficult to see where the opportunities are going to come from.
O’Neil said recently that Jonny had been training ‘unbelievably hard’ but hasn’t given him a single minute since, so it really does feel as though the writing is on the wall for the 29-year-old.