With exquisitely painful timing, the Premier League announced at 12:00 today that Gary O’Neil had been nominated for the November manager of the month award, an hour or so before he was due at a press conference that most Wolves supporters assumed he would not still be in a position to take.
In a way, it made for a perfect summary of Wolves’ season – lurching from inspiration to malfunction, often within the same game.
Over the past fortnight, the climbs and falls have become steeper, leading to Thursday’s unfortunate contrast.
At the time of writing, O’Neil remains in post – despite reports that Wolves are considering alternatives and the expectation of many supporters that the club should already have done so.
In time, we shall see whether this is an act of indecision or faith.
Wolves held off from making a change in the summer of 2023, when Julen Lopetegui could not have made his discontent more plain for many weeks before he finally left.
Having installed O’Neil at speed, and been pleased with the result, the club expressed their confidence in him with a new long contract just before this season started.
Twelve days ago at Fulham, it looked as though this season might have been working out at last. It looked like Wolves – although still alarmingly prone to defensive lapses – might have the attacking verve to counter-punch their way out of trouble.
Five minutes into Saturday’s game against Bournemouth, as Jorgen Strand Larsen headed in an excellent equaliser, you could still believe this.
But there are not many believers around just now.
The belief among the players that they could overcome the odds apparently against them was frequently in evidence last season, as they defied gravity in the Premier League table for several months.
At times, in the difficult early weeks of this season, you could still see it. At Fulham, it seemed to be glowing again.
Maintaining that belief will be an essential task for O’Neil, or anyone who replaces him, but every defensive pratfall must make it harder.
There is no easy choice here. Wolves travelled a similar path just two years ago, when they learned that a managerial change can fix a broken season, but it comes with substantial costs.
New managers are in a stronger position to demand new players – and the club has told us many times since then how conscious they are of those.
Simply changing the coach will not repair the squad’s weaknesses or stop the unpredictable errors.
Few things cost a club more money than a change of manager – relegation is one of them.
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