Gary O'Neill feels he has the support of those above him at Wolves, but has questioned the club's model after blaming the loss of a number of experienced players for the predicament they find themselves in.
O'Neill's position at Molineux is hanging by a thread after Wolves lost 2-1 to West Ham last night in a match believed to have been crucial for managerial positions at both clubs.
As it was, goals from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen either side of Matt Doherty's goal gave the Hammers a crucial three points and inflicted a third successive defeat on the Wolves, who remain in the relegation places.
What does the bottom half of the Premier League table look like…
West Ham are nine points clear of the relegation zone while Wolves battle in the relegation zone 📉 pic.twitter.com/MPwWiK1qRG
– Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 9, 2024
The people above me are supportive – O'Neill
Asked about his job security after the match, O'Neill, who joined Wolves in August 2023, told Sky Sports: “The people above me are supportive. But of course the fans want their club to be successful.
“I understand they are pointing the finger at me and it is my club and I have to take responsibility, but when I arrived at this football club they had only earned 41 points in the Premier League (the previous season).”
“Since that moment, we have managed to achieve £200 million in player sales. We have sold a very large number of players if you go back to Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Daniel Podence, Adama Traoré, Raul Jiménez, Diego Costa, Pedro Neto and Max Kilman.
“And then, we're not shopping in that market now, we're looking for other people who are in the future who can help us now.
“As we find in the Premier League, it is an unforgiving league. The group is doing their best to get up to speed. But I am really proud of them.
“I know we only have nine points and we are in a difficult position in the league but they are giving everything they can. So I hope the fans will still be proud of the players even though they hate the position we are in. They will not hate it more than me. I am there with them, whether they know it Or not.
“We will not give up and we will keep pressing. Big game coming up against Ipswich. We hope that some small parts, parts of us, parts of the officials will go our way.”
“How could this not be wrong?” 😮@Carra23 Jermain Defoe and Jermain agreed there had been a mistake in the lead-up to West Ham's win. pic.twitter.com/sYfZCU9nVK
– Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 9, 2024
The Wolves are unfortunate with several big decisions
O'Neill was rightly furious that a number of key decisions were made against his side at the London Stadium, particularly awarding the winner to West Ham from Bowen after Dinos Mavropanos climbed all over Santi Bueno in the build-up.
VAR's reason for allowing the goal was that Bowen had scored from the next phase of play but O'Neill disagreed.
“It's crazy,” he said. “Santi Bueno would head the ball wide, so it didn't matter (VAR said it was a new phase of play) because we had cleared the ball.
“It's a blatant foul on Santi Bueno and it can't be a different stage. The ball is still in the same area.
“They will find reasons, of course they will, and I know there will be gray areas and the wording of the rule can be interpreted in many different ways. But this is a blatant foul on Bueno in the seconds before the goal. This is a blatant foul.”
Wolves were also unfortunate that West Ham's opening goal came from a corner kick that should not have been awarded with the ball coming off defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
