Wolves fans are looking forward to a new era, after Gary O’Neil was sacked by the club on Sunday.
Wolves lost to Ipswich Town on Saturday in the Premier League, and that proved to be the final straw for Fosun.
Gary O’Neil was relieved of his duties, and it’s a decision that practically every Wolves fan had been calling for the club to make.
Some Wolves fans think this decision to sack O’Neil now has come too late. But we’re still less than halfway through the season, and hopefully incoming manager Vitor Pereira will be able to get this team away from the relegation zone.
We are now just waiting for confirmation from Wolves about Pereira, who travelled to England on Tuesday.
He has a lot of work to do, and he’ll likely be walking into a very frustrated dressing room – and Mario Lemina is perhaps the most frustrated player of all right now.
Ben Tozer feels Mario Lemina losing the Wolves captaincy will have ‘wounded’ him
Last Monday, Wolves lost to West Ham United at the London Stadium.
After the full-time whistle, Lemina was involved in a scuffle with Jarrod Bowen, which the West Ham captain initiated.
Lemina lost his head, and pushed teammates Nelson Semedo and Toti Gomes away from him, as well as Shaun Derry.
Lemina apologised for his behaviour against West Ham, but days later, O’Neil confirmed that Lemina was no longer captain, and the feeling was that this would help take some of the pressure off the Gabon midfielder, who’s struggled this season.
But former Football League player Ben Tozer doesn’t see it that way.
Speaking on the Ben Foster- A Cycling GK YouTube channel, the pundit said: “Massive news. You’re denting his ego there.
“Because whether you like it or not, if you come and take the captain’s armband off, that is just a huge statement. and you’re wounded.
“You’re thinking ‘he doesn’t trust me’, he doesn’t trust me anymore, I’m his safe haven, I’m the one he trusts and now he doesn’t trust me, my back’s against the wall’.”
Captaincy decision will have hurt Lemina
It was spun as a mutual decision. But Lemina surely would not have wanted to give up the captaincy, given the pride of which he spoke about being skipper at the start of the season.
Former goalkeeper Dave Watson is also in the video with Tozer, and said Lemina – who he has worked with previously – ‘would not have taken that too kindly’.
It’s a decision that had to have hurt.
But at the same time, it probably was the right call, and Wolves fans will hope it’ll help him to get back to his best.
There’s a clean slate for everyone now with Pereira coming in, and hopefully, Lemina will see this as a chance to put the past few months behind him and become that dominant midfield enforcer again.