“I was clear with them that we were overloading the players, I’m trying to pick a starting XI from 12 fit senior outfield players”- Gary O’Neil now reveals what he told the Wolves board in January as injury problems compound to affect club’s form
Wolves manager Gary O’Neil said after the 1-1 draw with Burnley that he made the board aware of his concerns about the squad.
Wanderers took a point against the Clarets at Turf Moor, coming from behind after Jacob Bruun Larsen scored a stunning opener.
Rayan Ait-Nouri equalised on the stroke of half-time for the visitors. But Wolves didn’t have too many chances in the contest.
He might well have squared the ball to Leon Chiwome, but the youngster was overlooked in the moment. Chiwome, 18, is currently in the side as a result of injury problems, something O’Neil addressed after the game…
Gary O’Neil says he made the Wolves board aware of his concerns about squad depth. It is probably the toughest period of the season for Wolves at the moment.
Matheus Cunha returned to action last night after sustaining a ‘significant’ hamstring injury, but Hwang Hee-chan and Pedro Neto remain sidelined.
Craig Dawson and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde also missed out against Burnley through injury.
Wolves were very quiet in January, signing only Noha Lemina on loan from Paris Saint-Germain. The club did look at signing Armando Broja, but ultimately couldn’t afford his loan fee.
Speaking after the draw with Burnley, a frustrated O’Neil spoke about the concerns he had about the squad and potential injuries.
The E&S quoted him as saying: “I was clear with them that we were overloading the players and I felt our injury record had a really good chance of getting worse during the second half of the season.
“On top of that, I also flagged how short we were in attacking positions and if we suffered even a couple of injuries to the top line it would make a huge difference to what we were able to produce. Unfortunately, the club were not in a position to be able to help us with that due to financial reasons.
“We had a Premier League number nine lined up to come in and help us and a fairly small amount of money stopped us doing it.
“The situation the club is in is showing now. You can see now why the aim at the start of the season was to stay in the Premier League. We have some unbelievable players but if you lose a couple, I’m trying to pick a starting XI from 12 fit senior outfield players. I would doubt there’s another club in the other 91 in the country that are down that low.
“The point of all that, is that the group are out on their feet and deserve massive credit. To fight like they do, they deserve huge credit, with 42 points surpassing last year’s total with eight games to go.
“It’s an incredible effort from a special group of players that have given a lot to the club this year.”
O’Neil’s frustrations are understandable. Wolves came into the season with a small squad, that got even smaller in January with players like Fabio Silva, Sasa Kalajzic, Jonny Castro Otto and Joe Hodge all departing.
Then, O’Neil’s brilliant front three all got injured.
The squad has been threadbare in recent weeks and the situation is threatening to throw Wolves off as the business end of the season approaches.
But we have seen both Everton and Nottingham Forest get points deducted this term for breaching PSR. So had Wolves spent in January, maybe the club would also have been hit with a punishment.
