Wolves manager Gary O’Neil is feeling the pressure after the Old Gold’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham United.
In an action-packed 90 minutes, Wolves suffered their third consecutive defeat in the Premier League, with further questions asked of O’Neil.
Wolves plan to replace O’Neil but are struggling to do so amid an ongoing search for the Englishman’s successor, which only causes the squad problems.
A feeling of deep uncertainty surrounds Molineux at present, with tensions rising at the London Stadium as a result.
Mario Lemina slammed for behaviour against West Ham
At full-time, things got ugly as Mario Lemina was involved in an altercation with several players, including his own teammates.
The incident started between the captain and Jarrod Bowen before it broke into something far bigger, seeing Nelson Semedo and Toti Gomes on the receiving end as they tried to pull the midfielder away.
Things ended as Lemina locked heads with first-team coach Shaun Derry in what was a terrible way to end a deflating fixture.
Reacting to the incident, Express and Star reporters Nathan Judah and Liam Keen expressed their disbelief at how the Wolves captain conducted himself.
“Scrapping with Bowen, scrapping with Toti, with the staff as well, a horrible horrible look. You cannot be seen to be doing that, especially as club captain,” Judah said.
“That’s a terrible example, I understand they’re emotional but, you’re the one this team are looking to lead this team out of the bottom three.”
Keen agreed with his colleague’s assessment, dubbing Lemina’s actions as ‘schoolboy’.
“It starts with Bowen’s handshake, escalates stupidly from that, then pushes Semedo away, then he pushes Toti, then he goes head to head with Derry, it’s amateur stuff it’s schoolboy.”
Judah went on to call Lemina ‘pathetic’ for brawling with his own teammates, prompting Keen to explain what he believes the midfielder should do next.
“Obviously, we don’t know what’s been said, Lemina cares about this football club but he’s been poor this season. As much as he cares, with scrapping and fighting, do it on the pitch, don’t do it at full-time after you’ve lost.
“Don’t do it when your manager might be losing his job. Don’t give the fans a half-hearted clap and then storm down the tunnel. This is childish stuff, he’s too emotional, he needs to get a grip, collect his thoughts and come out and play like he did last season.”
Lemina has to redeem himself on the pitch
Social media posts and apologies won’t cut in in this instance as all people want to see is a response on the pitch.
Wolves fans were furious with Lemina after the incident at full-time, with some calling for O’Neil to take the captaincy away from the 31-year-old.
Given what the Old Gold are going through right now, the last thing that was required was an outburst as petulant as the midfielder’s after defeat.
Wolves were urged to control their emotions ahead of the fixture, which was done sufficiently until the final whistle, giving Lemina a lot of work to do to make his apology heard.