GARY O’NEIL: WOLVES V IPSWICH PRESS CONFERENCE

Good afternoon, Gary.  Looking ahead to Ipswich, first of all, team news: any injury concerns?

No, we’re okay. Everyone has come through fine this week. Jose Sa still won’t make it. Pablo won’t quite make it. And obviously, the longer-term ones, Bouba and Yersin won’t make the game. But apart from that, everyone’s fine. Everyone’s trained.

Of course, they’ll be checked now after training, and hopefully there are no issues from today’s session. So yeah, all good, ready to go.

Can I just ask about Bouba? How is his recovery going, and do we have a timeline for when we can see him back?

Yeah, we’re hoping for him to be back around the end of the month. Depending on how the next few weeks go, that could mean just back in training, or if he’s able to accelerate it, maybe we’ll have him in some squads. But he’s still got a little bit to go. It is getting closer, and you can see the excitement in his face when you bump into him around the place. He’s doing a lot of hard work to get himself back in shape, and we are really looking forward to welcoming him back into the group because he can definitely add something.

Just talking about post-West Ham, first of all, we saw your captain Mario Lemina in a bit of a flashpoint with Jarrod Bowen. We also saw him in a heated exchange with Shaun Derry. I know Mario has apologised midweek, but have you had any discussions with him this week, and how have those gone?

Yeah, we’ve spoken a lot this week, me, Mario, and some of the other senior players. Obviously, what happened after the game cannot happen, and we all understand that emotions can rise. We’re in a tough moment, and everyone’s fighting and giving everything under big stress and pressure. But yeah, those scenes won’t happen again, definitely. The discussions with Mario have been good; we get on very well. He’s been a big part of what we’ve been able to do here, especially since I’ve been here, and we have a lot of respect for each other. After our discussions, we decided to move the captaincy to Nelson. So Nelson will captain the group from now on.

As I say, discussions were good. Sometimes these things can be tough to deal with, but sometimes you can come out of them in a really good spot, and I feel like we have. I have a lot of respect for Mario and what he can still do for us, as well as what he’s done for us before. When we get the best out of him on the pitch, his level is so high that he’s going to play a very big part for us, which he’s very keen to do. He’ll still be around the group of senior players that lead the team. But at this moment, we feel it’s best for Nelson to lead the group.

If you don’t mind, Gary, could you expand on that? What was behind the decision? Was it based on post-West Ham? How did Mario take the news? How is Nelson taking the news about taking on the captaincy?

Yeah, Mario’s fine. It was a conversation. It was nothing more than that. The most important thing is that we need to get the best out of everybody. Can we find a way to get the best out of Mario Lemina, week in, week out? The same applies to Nelson and the rest of the group.

So, of course, the other night sparked the conversation. But it was an important discussion. Mario and I now have a good understanding of how we move forward and what it looks like. We dealt with this earlier in the week, so our focus since that moment has been purely on Ipswich. Mario’s ready. Nelson’s ready. The rest of the players are ready. We have a big game to focus on.

As you mentioned earlier, the focus is on tomorrow. We’ve asked you recently, especially after recent results, about your own job, Gary. I appreciate that’s not been easy either. The club have clearly come out to back you this week. We saw Jeff Shi’s comments yesterday in his column. How important has that backing been? Have you had any recent conversations that have reinforced that support for you?

No, I’ve always been in contact with Matt and Jeff. Everyone here is aware of the situation we’ve been in. I’m pretty sure that if I had been in a situation where we were spending freely and I was cherry-picking Premier League players, having only won three games, I’d have lost my job a while ago. But that’s not the situation we are in.

Our situation is very different. Of course, I understand the importance of results for the club and for everyone—supporters, owners, players. We’re working hard to improve. There has always been an understanding of where we are. We still feel we need to do better. No one wants to be on nine points after 15 games, so we need to improve. But I’ve had good conversations with Matt and Jeff about what we need to do now and what we do with January approaching and the direction we want to take the club.

I know you said after Monday that the club has lost some key players over the last two summers. From the most recent window, do you think the club has learned any lessons? We know players were brought in for their potential, but maybe lacked experience. Do you think they’ve learned from that window?

I’m not sure if there’s a lesson learned, but I think January will be very different. January will be a different matter. Whether that’s a lesson learned or just an adjustment, these things always evolve. Nothing is fixed, and we can always tweak things. Jeff and Matt have been good about revisiting things if something isn’t working for us.

January will be important, but I can honestly say my focus is on this group and how much we can get out of them. I’m excited to get them going again for tomorrow, and I’m excited for this group to prove everyone wrong and change the situation, regardless of what January looks like. Let’s get this group in a place where they can turn things around, and then whatever happens after that will happen. My faith in this group is 100%. They know they need to push to do more, and I need to push to do more. This group will find a way to turn things around.

Just finally from you, Gary, back at home against Ipswich. You mentioned you lost a bit of a connection with the fans after West Ham. Could you expand on that? How can you get that back?

The nature of results drives the relationship with the fans. Let’s be honest, last year when I came in, we connected well because we beat Man City and Chelsea twice and had some fantastic wins. So that helps. This season, results have been nowhere near that. The relationship between me and the fans will take a hit because of that. There seems to be a distance between expectations and reality.

But my feelings towards them haven’t changed. I love standing in front of them. I love representing their football club. I’m giving everything to make this group as good as it can be. I’m sure we’ll start to see results that help them. I’m proud of how well they have stuck with the players. I’ve never seen them not support the players after a game, which is important. The players appreciate that, and they’re keen to do the supporters justice again tomorrow and next week at Leicester and throughout the season.

I want you to forget the footballing technicalities. You will need a touch of that on Saturday. But what are the true human characteristics you want and need to see from your players on Saturday?

I think we face a team that has come up through League One and the Championship together. They’ve added quite a few players this season, but they have a core group and a coaching staff that have been on a journey. That might put them in a different place compared to us. Even though Ipswich is on the same points as us, the feeling around them will be very different. Wolves is a big football club that has had some good years recently. We need to match that.

We need to be together, ready to fight, and humble. We need to pay Ipswich respect when they come because they’re a good side with a good coach and have signed some fantastic players. Liam Delap is having a great season up front and looks like a real threat against big, strong centre-backs. The first thing is to show respect towards Ipswich. By respect, I don’t mean we stand off them and let them have their way. We need to turn up as if we’re playing a top side and be at our very best. That’s so important for the group tomorrow and for the feeling in the stadium.

The atmosphere will be this is Wolves vs Ipswich. We need to win this one, and we need to win it comfortably. Winning games in the Premier League is rarely comfortable. There will be moments tomorrow where we need to dig in, fight, and stay together. We’ll have to defend at times, and when we get our moments in the game, we need to use our quality to make a difference. That’s the real message from me. We need to respect Ipswich and be really focused to our maximum level.

Think of the work that went into giving ourselves a chance against Manchester City in recent weeks. That’s the level of focus we need tomorrow to come out on top against Ipswich. Matt Doherty has spoken about the frustration of conceding from another set-piece in midweek. You must be fed up hearing about it yourself. Ipswich will no doubt try to test that resolve again. Are you confident in the steps you’re taking on the training pitch to resolve those defensive set-pieces? Yeah, we’re working very hard on them. We’ve done a lot of work on them again this week.

I was really disappointed with the West Ham one because we managed to be much more solid in the game. We quietened the crowd and were coming into a stage of the game where we could really attack. Then we gave West Ham a soft goal. It makes such a difference to give away goals like that. It impacts the feel of the performance and everything that goes with it. So, we have a real focus on it. The lads have worked hard in meetings and training, including this morning. I’m confident the work we’re doing will help us turn our defensive set-pieces around.

And just finally from me, Ipswich have failed to win in their last four. For many, it’s said to be an ideal opponent to turn your fortunes around. But are teams desperate for points often the most dangerous?

I think they’re a good side with a good coach, and they have decent spending power. They’ve signed some fantastic players. Being able to take Calvin Phillips from Manchester City and the number of players they’ve added has really helped them this year.

They’ve strengthened their group. I remember speaking to Kieran in the off-season about his plans and how he wanted to go about it. He’s been fully backed. They’re in a good spot as a club, and they’re on the rise. That will be dangerous for us. We have to find our top level of focus to make sure we come out on top. We have the ability and quality here to cause Ipswich problems tomorrow. But it will take more than just ability and quality. It will need determination, focus, togetherness, and a willingness to dig in if we have to.

Like we did in some other games, we may remember the great goals and fantastic football at Fulham, but we also need to defend well together. We’ll need all of that again tomorrow.

January is going to be different. I heard what you said the other night about the players who have left. Is that going to give you a louder voice in saying you need things now? I appreciate signing good players for the future, but you need things now, don’t you?

I think everybody’s aware that we’ve lost regular starters for a while. We’ve been trying to replenish from underneath and build up. We’re hopeful. January is still a way off, but there is definitely a focus on putting players in to help the XI right now. It’s important for us, especially in areas where we’ve suffered bad luck. In defensive areas, we’ve lost Yersin and not been able to get one done at the end of the window.

Those areas are a real focus for the recruitment department and upstairs for January. We’re trying to get everything organised to help ourselves as early as possible.

I appreciate the finances aren’t your end, but are you reassured? That’s not a cheap thing to do, especially in January, as everyone has seen. Are you reassured on that?

I haven’t had many discussions with the guys upstairs about this, but they assure us they’re going to do their best to help the group as much as they can in January, which is as far as it’s got so far.

And you’re clear on what the priorities are? You can say to them, ‘This is what I need. We must have this.’ Yeah, not just me. I think the recruitment team, Matt Hobbs, myself, will all be involved in that process. What the team needs is very clear. I’m very clear on it, and Matt is also. The work has already started. We’re working very hard upstairs to get things in place so we can do things quickly. You’re the one who has to coach them, so your voice matters. Are you confident they see your input as important?

Yeah, the recruitment guys are very aware of that and are good with it. It’s not like they sign the players, and I just have to work with them. There is a combined effort on both sides. Of course, my input into what we need and what type we need is important to them.