Wolves has sacked boss Gary O’Neil and are now discussing his replacement, according to reports.
O’Neil was expected to lose his job following 2-1 defeat to West Ham on Monday night in a match which was dubbed ‘El Sackico’. But he was given a stay of execution.
Yesterday O’Neil insisted his Wolves players needed to take responsibility after a 2-1 home defeat to Ipswich – which ultimately pushed him out the door at Molineux.
The loss means they stay mired in the Premier League relegation zone in 19th place, four points off safety.
Jack Taylor won it for the Tractor Boys in stoppage time, afforded space to head home from a corner. Ipswich had taken an early lead through a calamitous own goal off Matt Doherty before Matheus Cunha dragged Wolves level in the 72nd minute.
(Image: PA)
Boos rained down on Wolves at the final whistle, with Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri both involved in separate scuffles. Ait-Nouri was shown a second yellow card in the tunnel.
Wolves’ defender Rayan Ait-Nouri was seen being restrained by teammate Craig Dawson after a heated exchange at the end of their recent match. The incident, which saw Ait-Nouri being pushed towards the tunnel by an unimpressed Dawson, occurred amidst boos from the crowd.
It came just days after Mario Lemina clashed with Jarrod Bowen at the end of Monday’s 2-1 defeat at West Ham, which led to him losing the captaincy.
(Image: Getty Images)
“We deal with things like that very, very seriously, as you saw last week,” O’Neil said. “It’s annoying in that we’ve got enough to do at this moment in time, we’ve got enough to fix without me having to spend time on things that go on off the pitch.
“So the players do need to take some responsibility. But I’ll help them with all of it so we get back to work on Monday morning.”
O’Neil was unhappy with both goals his side conceded, calling the first “unacceptable” for the ease with which Liam Delap barged past Nelson Semedo before crossing, then claiming his players had swapped assignments to allow Taylor the space to score the winner.
“The set-play goal, I would happily take responsibility for it if the players were stood in the right place,” he said. “For some reason two of them have decided to change roles very late on in the game. I’m 100 per cent confident if they were in the right spot our player heads it away.
“That’s the players’ decision-making under stress. Players will change things around and try and find fixes all the time but that’s a real poor decision from them in an important moment.”
Having taken the lead when Toti blocked Conor Chaplin’s shot but headed against Doherty in the 15th minute, Ipswich looked fairly comfortable until Wolves belatedly roused themselves, with the hosts then looking the more likely winners after Cunha’s equaliser.
“We got an awful lot out of the group to respond the way they did,” O’Neil added. “With where we are in the league and the results we’ve suffered, to create that sort of energy takes a hell of an effort, so that group is close to maximum.
“The real damning verdict is when we’re close to maximum it’s still not enough to come out on top.”