Gary O’Neil might be Wolves manager right now if he didn’t turn it down, but instead he’s sharing his thoughts on Rob Edwards being linked to the role.
In a surprise turn of events, O’Neil was the preferred choice to replace Vitor Pereira as manager, but he didn’t feel it was the right opportunity.
There’s an argument to say this role isn’t the right opportunity for anyone. It’s now 11 Premier League games without a win and things are looking pretty hopeless at Wolves right now.
But that isn’t putting off their number one target. Edwards is keen to take the Wolves job and fight to bring this team back to a competitive place.
Gary O’Neil gives Rob Edwards encouragement
The decision to include O’Neil in the team to cover this game was a smart move from Sky. Everyone knows Wolves wanted him less than a week ago.
But O’Neil wasn’t interested in discussing his own situation. Rather, he wanted to talk about Edwards, who looks set to join Wolves in the coming days.
Asked whether this Wolves team is different from the one he coached less than a year ago, he said on Sky Sports: “Yeah I think it’s an interesting transition that they’ve gone through, obviously they’ve lost big players in the summer.
“They backed Vitor in the summer and so far this new team has not been able to put enough results on the board, and they’re in a transition period from a group that had more physicality but not as technical. But Rob has already been in a great job at Middlesbrough, so he must have seen something in this.”
By the sounds of it, O’Neil isn’t overly convinced with this Wolves squad, and that may well be why he didn’t want to take the job.
A weird night for Wolves vs Chelsea
On the game itself, it’s proven a tough one to dissect.
Chelsea were by far the better side, but that was to be expected on a winter night at Stamford Bridge. Wolves threatened little, but also weren’t getting carved open with ease.
It might even be more concerning that the performance wasn’t dreadful, but Chelsea eased by Wolves all the same.
Edwards has his work cut out for him, if/when he arrives at Molineux. Wolves look lost at the moment, and if a drastic improvement doesn’t happen, the Championship looks more and more possible.