Gary O’Neil and Julen Lopetegui will do battle for the first time tonight as Wolves take on West Ham United at the London Stadium.
The game is being billed as ‘El Sackico’, with the feeling being that whichever manager loses the game will lose his job.
Wolves have had an atrocious season so far. Everyone understood Wolves had a difficult start in terms of the fixtures, but results haven’t really picked up in recent weeks.
Wolves did go four unbeaten recently, but big defeats to Bournemouth and Everton have put O’Neil on the brink.
It just hasn’t been good enough defensively this season, and many have pointed to the failure to sign a replacement for Max Kilman as a major reason why Wolves are where they are in the table.
Wolves’ pool of defenders has certainly been much stronger in the past – and one man who’s really starting to impress away from Molineux now is Nathan Collins.
Nathan Collins is shining for Brentford after leaving Wolves
Nathan Collins of Brentford looks o during the Premier League match between Everton FC and Brentford FC at Goodison Park on November 23, 2024 in Li...
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
In the summer of 2023, Wolves sold a number of players in order to help alleviate the financial pressure they were under.
Nathan Collins, who had only signed from Burnley one year before, was one of those players who left.
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He hadn’t wholly convinced in a Wolves shirt, and Julen Lopetegui was happy to see the back of him.
Brentford came in with an offer of around £23 million, which gave Wolves a small profit of around £3 million. There weren’t too many Wolves fans disappointed with that sale at the time. Even Steve Bull praises Wolves over Nathan Collins sale, who he felt had been in and out of the team.
But now, Collins is really starting to prove his worth for the Bees.
Brentford published a feature article last month on Collins analysing his season so far. They say Collins has been every bit as important to them as top goalscorer Bryan Mbeumo.
As per the feature, Collins led the Premier League for shots blocked (20) and also ranked fifth in the entire division for aerials won (32) and 11th for clearances made (45).
Collins also topped the passing charts for Brentford last season despite missing six games, and he is again out front this term. Currently, he’s the only player in Brentford’s squad to complete 500+ accurate passes.
Collins has also been a goal threat, having scored his second of the season on Saturday against Newcastle United. his first coming against Wolves, of course.
Why did Nathan Collins leave Wolves?
So, amid Wolves’ defensive struggles, Collins really is now shining for Brentford which is a tad frustrating.
Collins did have some error-strewn performances while playing for Wolves. But he also showed some signs that he could be the player he currently is for Brentford.
Collins admitted that he didn’t want to leave Wolves, as he didn’t want to keep moving around. But in the end he felt he had to, as it would be best for his career and finding stability.
At the time, he wasn’t in favour with Lopetegui, who had preferred to use Max Kilman and Craig Dawson.
O’Neil never got the chance to work with Collins, who was sold on July 4. Lopetegui left Wolves on August 8, with O’Neil then appointed on August 9.
Kilman’s sale may well have been unavoidable given the club’s financial predicament, but O’Neil may well wonder what might have been had Wolves sold someone else instead.
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