Unemployed Premier League manager Gary O’Neil believes his previous links to the top job at Manchester United were only speculative. The 42-year-old spent two-and-a-half years as a Premier League manager during stints with Bournemouth and Wolves.
O’Neil steadied the ship at Bournemouth for a season after Scott Parker was sacked in the wake of a 9-0 defeat to Liverpool in August 2022. But after the Cherries opted to appoint Andoni Iraola instead of keeping O’Neil on at the end of the 2022/23 campaign, the Englishman took the helm at Wolves. During his first season in the west Midlands, Wolves finished 14th after briefly climbing to eighth. He was tipped to take over from Gareth Southgate at England and was also backed to become the boss at Old Trafford. But after he oversaw 11 defeats in Wolves’ first 16 league matches last season, he was dismissed.
O’Neil is yet to return to management following his exit from Wolves. And during an interview with The Telegraph, he insisted he couldn’t “control” his name being linked with other jobs.
“I’ve done some media work and when you are sat there you have to give an opinion,” he explained. “So, these people who are saying these lovely things about me or not so nice things about me, they’re fulfilling a role.
“I understand that I was probably loosely linked to Manchester United and England. I don’t think there was ever anything really in it.
“Wolves were going very, very well at the time. The place was rocking. We were beating big sides, having lost a lot of big players.
“So, there was reason for the positive noise. Then you go from being linked to big clubs and big jobs to having a tough few months at Wolves and then those same outlets are saying you’re useless.
“It can change very quickly and the truth is always in the middle. In the end at Wolves we weren’t able to arrest the slide. I would have loved to get to January. But you have to earn the right to get the window.”
Wolves eventually stayed in the Premier League after O’Neil was replaced by Vítor Pereira. And the former midfielder added: “The club were aware of the issues. We’d had detailed discussions around what we needed, what we were going to try to do.
“Vitor came in and he gave them unbelievable stability, got them some fantastic results, saw the players respond to the managerial change as well, which is often the case.
“So I sat here (at home) watching Wolves every week, praying that they would win and that they would stay up. You don’t want to play a part in a team that’s relegated.”