Wolverhampton Wanderers

Dave Azzopardi
Fan writer

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The news of Gary O'Neil's sacking is something that many Wolves fans have been waiting some weeks for. Results and performances have been extremely underwhelming so far this season and O'Neil has been walking on a tightrope since early October.

He deserves credit for the job he did at Wolves last season. He came in just days notice before a Premier League campaign and fans saw some really strong results and good moments at Molineux. However, a downfall in form towards the end of the last campaign has spilled into this season and O'Neil has been unable to change Wolves' fortunes.

Different tactics have been used, players have swapped positions but nothing has fallen into place for Wolves and O'Neil this season. A huge concern is the club's defensive record with defending set pieces being a real area of weakness. I'd be shocked if another Premier League side in the past has conceded the amount of set pieces Wolves have at this point of a season.

Whoever takes over now as head coach needs to get this squad to believe again. No doubt the new head coach will have to be backed in January but there is quality in this squad. If they can shore up the squad defensively and kick off with a positive result this weekend at Leicester, hopefully Wolves turn it around and manage to secure survival.

Find more from Dave Azzopardi at Talking Wolves, external

Former Brighton and Chelsea manager Graham Potter rebuffed interest from Wolves last month as the Midlands club looked into options to replace Gary O'Neil, who has now been sacked. (Guardian), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Nick Mashiter
BBC Sport football news reporter

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Wolves are in talks with Al-Shabab manager Vitor Pereira to replace head coach Gary O'Neil, who was sacked by the club on Sunday.

The Premier League strugglers are looking for a swift appointment and the money they would have to pay as compensation to secure former Porto and Olympiakos boss Pereira is not believed to be an issue.

Wolves have been assessing their options and have sounded other possible replacements, including ex-West Ham and Manchester United boss David Moyes.

But club sources have told BBC Sport that Pereira is the frontrunner for the job.

Pereira has been in charge at Al Shabab since February, finishing eighth in the Saudi Pro League last season. They currently sit sixth after seven wins from 13 games.

The 56-year-old Portuguese won two Primeira Liga titles with Porto in 2012 and 2013 and the Greek Super League with Olympiakos in 2015.

The Wolves squad are not due to return for training until Tuesday and Pereira could be in charge by then, with his first game Sunday's trip to Leicester if negotiations go as planned.

Read more here

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We asked for your thoughts about the departure of Gary O'Neil.

Here are some of your comments:

Steve: I am always sorry to see a manager lose their job and this is made harder given it's a week before Christmas and O'Neil is such a likeable guy. That being said, this is the right decision for the club and is probably a couple of weeks too late. It should have happened after the Everton defeat. The key now is getting someone in before the January window who can shore up the club and prevent relegation.

Dave: Honestly, what does the club board expect? Constantly forced to sell your best players and replacing them with second-rate players or unproven youngsters. This is like Southampton from a few years back. On the pitch, they have made chances but not stuck them away, and there's been too many individual nightmares at the back (not errors, nightmares). O'Neil has been unlucky due to this culmination of circumstances on and off the pitch. Not much else he could have done without being on the pitch.

Phil: Should have gone weeks ago. Admittedly selling off our best players doesn't help but the quality that's left is capable of doing a lot better.

Karl: It's a shame really - £200m in sold players and more to come. Who on earth is going to do a better job with the same team and same outcome and more sold players to come to balance the books? I love Wolves - and it's a big but - it's inevitable it's only going one way.

Chris: Sacking O'Neil was long overdue. His team had no identity and no idea how to defend corners! He didn't know his best team. Jeff Shi and Fosun now need to take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves, do they want to be here?

Michael: Thank goodness! The media 'love-in' with Gary has been so misplaced. We have a very talented bunch of players who have been shuffled around the iPad constantly and are confused and bewildered. There is - and has been - no discernible pattern of play. And O'Neil's constant acceptance of plaudits for himself when things go well, and blame on the players for 'not doing what we've told them in the week', just sticks in the craw.

Will Perry
Final Score reporter

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Sourer than a lemon is how the mood tasted at Molineux as the full-time whistle blew. The chants of "Fosun Out" had began well before Matheus Cunha's equaliser.

It had felt like the writing was on the wall for Wolves just minutes into the game.

A deluge of wasted chances followed, conceding yet again from a set piece. Robert Plant and his friends have seen this film before and there certainly wasn't a Whole Lotta Love coming from the stands.

You would not bet against a Ruud awakening at King Power Stadium on Sunday before Ruben Amorim comes to town on Boxing Day to try and steal all Wolves' Christmas presents, with the gap to survival swelling.

Nick Mashiter
BBC Sport football news reporter

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The issues were piling up and Wolves wanted to remain strong. The decision to part ways with Gary O'Neil is a reluctant one - not least because of chairman Jeff Shi's words of support last week now look hollow.

It was no surprise to hear the fans turn on the chairman and owners Fosun, rather than O'Neil, during the Ipswich game.

O'Neil was well liked and had the loyalty of the players, but the decision-makers saw no alternative. This season's run of 11 defeats in their opening 16 games continued a worrying trend from the end of the previous campaign.

And O'Neil had already been to the brink once. Sources told BBC Sport there was an acceptance from O'Neil's team that failure to beat Southampton on 9 November could have been terminal. A 2-0 win and a surprise 4-1 win at Fulham in the same month was a stay of execution.

In the end, a calamitous 4-2 home loss to Bournemouth, in which they conceded three penalties, and the hammering at Everton meant a change became almost inevitable.

O'Neil leaves Wolves with only two wins and with a game against Leicester City to come before Christmas.

The loyalty shown by Shi and sporting director Matt Hobbs will be questioned, but Wolves have been here before, replacing Bruno Lage with Julen Lopetegui when they were also second bottom two years ago.

They know a mid-season change can pay off even if there is little money to spend this time.

Gary O'Neil has been sacked after Saturday's 2-1 loss to Ipswich.

Wolves finished 14th in the 2023–24 Premier League season and O'Neil was rewarded in the summer with a new four-year contract.

However, after a tough start to this campaign, he departs with Wolves second from bottom with no points from their past four games.

What do you make of the sacking?

Was his time up after such a disappointing start, or did he deserve more time to turn things around?

Let us know here

Highlights and analysis from Saturday's five Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Liverpool 2-2 Fulham

• Nottingham Forest 2-1 Aston Villa

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Wolves manager Gary O'Neil speaking to Match of the Day after the loss: "It is a big blow for the group. Especially with how we fought to get back into the game and be the better side for the second half, We were at maximum and felt like we would go on and win the game. To suffer that goal so late, the nature of the goal is crazy, which we have said already.

"I can shield them from so much but long balls over the top and then players are taking it upon themselves to change positions from a corner, for some reason. The subs made a big impact and we fought back and we have nothing to show for it."

On Ipswich's winner: "I was told that it might have been offside. We have had a couple. There are far more pressing matters in my mind than VAR and whether the guy was in the way. Too many mistakes from us again. These cannot happen at these levels. We have no chance if we can't deal with Liam Delap running through. We have no chance if we can't stand in the right place and head the ball. It is a more than disappointing way to lose. We take nothing from it."

What is the most pressing matter? "The team. The ability of the team to cope at this level. I have worked at this level for, this is my third year now and I have never had such a struggle to help the group cope with being at this level. We go to Everton and they boot it up the pitch and we can't cope. We have to find answers within the room to find answers. That second-half performance was us at maximum and them not really threatening. But we still found a way to concede two."

Speaking about the performance: "That is the group performing at maximum today. Until we can defend our goal then we are going to struggle. The emotion affects a lot. We started the game well and then Ipswich scored a goal they will never score against another Premier League team. I saw Delap doing that at youth level bashing people out of the way and it can't happen at this level. I will take the set-piece goal as my fault, if people are stood in the right place, but they weren't."

On Rayan Ait-Nouri's red card: "I haven't seen it. I have just been told he received a second yellow. I spoke to him during the game. We are under a lot of pressure. We are trying to push the group beyond our level and you can't get yourself in trouble. We are stretched as it is. We need Rayan and now we don't have him. I will deal with that internally. I understand the players being emotional but we have to keep control better. For two players not to be in the right place for a corner, at home to Ipswich, in the last seconds, shows they are not able to think clearly enough in those moments."

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Wolves midfielder Tommy Doyle speaking to Premier League Productions after today's loss: "I can stand here and say we deserved more but we have some issues we have got to sort out. It has to be improved and we will give 110 per cent but it has to be better than that.

"The be all and end all is that we are not winning football matches. It is difficult for me to stand here and put a finger on it. Hopefully tonight the fans will see the effort was there. It has to be better and we understand that. But yeah, it is another defeat which is not good enough and we apologise to the fans for that.

"The dressing room is a difficult place to be at this moment in time. We have to be honest with each other and figure out ourselves why we aren't getting three points. Honest conversations need to happen. Our mood is reflected by if we win or not and when we aren't doing that it is difficult. We have got to be a lot better. A lot better.

"I want the fans to know that we will give 100 per cent every single day to try and put this right for them."

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Wolves' performance

What did you make of Ipswich's display?

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

Read the report and follow reaction

There are five games in the Premier League on Saturday and we will bring you all the key moments.

• Arsenal v Everton

• Liverpool v Fulham - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Newcastle v Leicester

• Wolves v Ipswich

• Nottingham Forest v Aston Villa (17:30) - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

All kick-off times 15:00 GMT unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

Nick Mashiter
BBC Sport football news reporter

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Gary O'Neil's decision to replace Mario Lemina with Nelson Semedo showed he is still ready to make the big calls under pressure.

The news was delivered in a quite understated manner during his press conference on Friday, in the middle of an answer about the fall out of Monday's 2-1 defeat at West Ham.

Semedo is well respected and is less emotional than Lemina, who clashed with West Ham's Jarrod Bowen and Wolves assistant Shaun Derry following the final whistle, and is seen as a good fit for the armband.

O'Neil said he and Lemina were in a good place after their discussions earlier this week and without the additional pressure of the captaincy the midfielder should be able focus on his own game.

That is crucial for the visit of Ipswich which could give O'Neil much-needed respite from the growing pressure.

Molineux has the capacity to turn toxic if the performance and result is not positive and being able to free Lemina from any restrictions could prove decisive in the battle to stay up.

Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League games this season, against a variety of guests.

For week 16 he takes on darts star Stephen Bunting, who is a Liverpool fan.

Bunting, who is ranked eighth in the Professional Darts Championship (PDC) order of merit, takes on Alan Soutar or Kai Gotthardt in the second round of the PDC World Championship, which starts at London's Alexandra Palace on Sunday.

Sutton's prediction: 2-1

Do I think Wolves will score? Yes.

Do I think Ipswich will score too? Probably, because everyone scores against Wolves.

I could come out of retirement and score against Wolves, that's how bad their backline is. In fact, I actually think I would score more than one and I am 51.

Wolves have got some talented players but, as I've said previously, you cannot concede the amount of goals they do and expect to stay in the Premier League.

As for Ipswich, I was speaking to a teacher friend of mine, Mr Fields, about them this week.

As a loyal fan of the Tractor Boys, he was thinking six points was possible from their past two games, at home to Crystal Palace and Bournemouth - and they got zero.

I had said Ipswich would get a point against Palace and lose to Bournemouth, but those results still made me think I have been a bit too generous with my predictions for them this season.

Putting my Norwich loyalties to one side, anyone seeing my scores would think I had a soft spot for Ipswich, when in fact they are showing their soft centre.

So, I am going with Wolves here. I know Ipswich's best results so far have come on the road, but I don't think that will help them here.

It won't make any difference where they play if their goalkeeper, Arijanet Muric, keeps making terrible decisions.

Bunting's prediction: 1-1

Both teams are desperate for a win but it could end up being a game where both teams are more afraid of losing.

Read the full predictions and have your say here

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Earlier, we asked for your views on Wolves' change of captain, with Mario Lemina losing the armband and Nelson Semedo chosen to lead the side from now on.

Here are some of your comments:

Jim: Lemina is a great player but I do think making Nelson captain is the right decision. He is calm, part of a great Portugal team and highly experienced. If we had a top-performing centre-back, I'd give it to them. We need a new Conor Coady.

Geoff: I agree that Lemina had to be replaced. He is not mature enough yet for the role of captain and let's hope this allows the player more freedom on the pitch. We do need someone in control at the back and I'm not convinced we have anyone of the calibre of Coady or Kilman. Maybe something might happen in January to address this.

Chris: I like Mario as captain. But managed emotion is important in any leadership and he doesn't display that at times. That said, Semedo seems so laid back and not dissimilar to Kilman, he doesn't seem leadership material. It's a problem we could have done without but it does make Lemina 'droppable', which brings more options in midfield.

Peter: Lemina was nowhere near good enough as captain, neither was Kilman who played in all the games in the losing run last season. The whole defence needed a shake-up in the summer, as it does now. No defensive players were bought hence the problem now.

Mike: A good decision to change the captain. A leader should command respect and be able to control their emotions.

Image source, Getty Images

Wolves have a new captain - boss Gary O'Neil confirmed in his news conference on Friday that full-back Nelson Semedo will lead the side from now on, starting with Saturday's game against Ipswich.

The Portugal international has taken on the role from Mario Lemina, following conversations between O'Neil and the midfielder earlier this week.

Lemina clashed with West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen after Monday's 2-1 defeat at London Stadium, with O'Neil saying those types of scenes "can't happen".

Is it the right decision? Have your say