Gary O’Neil has been out of work since leaving Wolves in December 2024, and the former Molineux head coach has been reflecting on his time at the club.
Wanderers managed to survive relegation fairly easily in 2024/25 in the end, thanks to a huge impact by Vitor Pereira.
But things were certainly looking dicey at the time of his appointment, with Gary O’Neil having really struggled to get points on the board for Wolves.
It was always going to be a tough season after the fixtures were released.
But the feeling was that O’Neil should have done much better, with Wolves throwing away leads and putting in some embarrassing defensive performances.
Wolves had also sold two key players in the summer: Max Kilman and Pedro Neto.
And O’Neil has spoken of the latter in a new interview.
Pedro Neto sale left Gary O’Neil disappointed at Wolves
Pedro Neto in a Wolves tracksuit.
Photo by Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images
Pedro Neto was always a likely outgoing at Wolves in the summer of 2024.
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He had been at the club since 2019, and there was a feeling that it was his time to depart after the superb season he had in 2023/24, even though he missed a lot of games through injury.
But O’Neil – who insists the Wolves squad was still together just before he was sacked in December 2024 – has spoken of his disappointment about his £54 million sale to Chelsea (Sky Sports), mainly because of how it came out of nowhere.
Exclusive interview with Gary O’Neil.
In his first since leaving Wolves he talks about learning from his sacking, getting ready for the next challenge, his rapid coaching journey, set-pieces and why he dislikes the word “philosophy”https://t.co/IllUA1czCl
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He told the Guardian: “It was a tough phone call.
“We’d had a fantastic pre-season. It had been fairly quiet around him. We’d discussed that we might lose him. But then there’s not too much going on. We’d started to develop his relationship with Nelson Semedo on that side. Then Chelsea come and there was only going to be one outcome.”
Wolves sold O’Neil short after Neto sale to Chelsea
Former Wolves manager Gary O'Neil looking stern.
Photo by Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images
There can be some sympathy for O’Neil here because Wolves did a shoddy job of replacing Neto.
A few weeks later, the club signed Carlos Forbs on transfer deadline day.
While there was some excitement about this deal, there was also an element of risk. Forbs had only played one season at Ajax and wasn’t that experienced.
Pedro Neto for Wolves in 2023/24
Appearances – 24
Minutes played – 1729
Goals – 3
Assists – 14
As everyone saw last term, Forbs didn’t come close to replacing Neto, making just 11 appearances and making just one assist.
In an ideal world, Wolves would have sold Neto very quickly that summer, and then brought in someone with more pedigree to replace his output. Not a still unproven player like Forbs.