It is looking like Gary O’Neil will be back at Wolves for a second spell as manager.
Wolves sacked Vitor Pereira on Sunday morning after that dismal defeat to Fulham the day before, and club officials are working quickly to name his successor.
The likes of Rob Edwards and Michael Carrick have been mentioned as potential options for Wolves.
But talks are at an advanced stage with Gary O’Neil, and Molineux News understands that barring a major surprise, he will get the job.
The development has not gone down well with many fans.
O’Neil was sacked 11 months ago by Wolves for failing to get results and show that there was hope of a turnaround.
For many reasons this is an absolutely extraordinary move from Wolves if this does indeed come to fruition as expected.
But that all said, here are a few things O’Neil has to do differently in his second spell.
O’Neil must make Wolves hard to beat
Under O’Neil, Wolves were very poor defensively. Especially last season.
In 2024/25, Wolves shipped 40 goals in the 16 games he took before being sacked, and O’Neil simply cannot afford to oversee a weak defensive outfit.
O’Neil has been away from the game, but has been trying to learn from his mistakes the first time around, and arguably the defensive frailties were the root cause of Wolves’ issue and ultimately his demise.
This time around, he’s got to place emphasis on being hard to beat, and must also get this team solid on defending set-pieces.
Not chop and change so much, especially the goalkeeper
Like Pereira this term, O’Neil made many changes to his team last season, hoping he’d find a successful formula.
His constant changes didn’t help Wolves, and there was particular indecisiveness when it came to choosing his goalkeeper.
O’Neil went back and forth between Sam Johnstone and Jose Sa and neither player could build any momentum.
Johnstone has done OK this season all things considered and one gets the feeling O’Neil would stick with him. But he can’t be so willing to drop him, unless he really is struggling for form.
As a side note to this section, O’Neil also needs to put unwavering faith in Andre this time. He was reluctant to use him at times last season, and the Brazilian showed his quality as soon as O’Neil left and Pereira kept picking him.
Keep the emotions of his players in check
It was perhaps a natural by-product of losing games and playing poorly, but Wolves players lost their discipline last season, which helped nobody.
Granted, some of the more volatile characters have since left the club, but O’Neil will do to keep the emotions of the group in check.
There is going to be continued hardship, that is certain.
But if Wolves are going to have even the faintest hope of getting out of this mess, then O’Neil has to make sure that dressing room stays together.
He needs to, from the off, stress the importance of keeping calm and not losing heads.