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Gary O’Neil echoes what former managers have said in frustration with Wolves board

Manager Gary O’Neil echoes what former managers have said in frustration with the Wolves board as he spoke after the 1-1 draw with Burnley.

The club’s inability to secure an attacker in January due to financial limitations resulted in missing out on loaning Armando Broja from Chelsea to Fulham.

As a consequence, four out of five senior attackers have since sustained major injuries.

Despite the return of Matheus Cunha in the recent match against Burnley, Wolves’ manager, O’Neil, expressed frustration over the limited choices available.

As can be seen below, similar headlines have emerged from previous managers…

– Nuno Espirito Santo says his team ‘need more players’

– Bruno Lage warns Wolves’ small squad will cost them points

– Julen Lopetegui ‘worried’ over Wolves squad size 

“It’s a tough situation and there is a bit of me that’s disappointed because we’ve come so far in the league and got into such an unbelievable situation, and then the injuries have caught up with us,” he said, per Express & Star.

“The good thing from my point of view is that we did flag it to the club really clearly in January, and Matt Hobbs to be fair to him. He was very supportive and understanding.

“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 if 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.”

The likes of Hwang Hee-chan and Craig Dawson are in contention to play this weekend with a return to training.

“Hee-chan and Dawson have a chance for the weekend, but Bellegarde is still a bit behind them,” O’Neil added.

“I would expect Dawson and Channy to definitely be around for the Nottingham Forest game, barring any setbacks.

“They will be training with us before the weekend, so it’s just whether they’re able to do enough to show me they’re ready to go back in.”

The game itself saw Jacob Bruun Larsen looked to have put Burnley on their way to victory but Rayan Ait-Nouri headed home an equaliser.

Player ratings

Burnley: Muric (7), Taylor (6), O’Shea (6), Esteve (6), Vitinho (7), Cullen (6), Berge (7), Bruun Larsen (7), Odobert (7), Fofana (6), Foster (7)

Subs used: Benson (6), Rodriguez (6)

Wolves: Sa (8), Semedo (7), Kilman (7), Toti (6), H.Bueno (6), Doherty (6), Gomes (7), Lemima (7), Sarabia (7), Ait-Nouri (7), Chiwome (6)

Subs used: Cunha (6), S.Bueno (6), Traore (6)

Player of the match: Jose Sa

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said: “It was a fair result. They had the better of the first half and we had better chances in the second half – Rayan Ait-Nouri’s chance is a golden one. It’s not often you get such a chance with no-one in the way but the goalkeeper. He’s had a couple of chances like that now – he had one at Villa.

“It was a good away performance where we had to fight and we’ll take a point.

“We’re very short of attacking players so finishing teams off is tricky at the moment. We had some really dangerous moments that we didn’t turn into shots.”

A day after Vincent Kompany criticised refereeing standards in the Premier League this season for not being good enough, he disputed Thomas Bramall’s decision to award Wolves the free-kick from which Ait-Nouri cancelled out Bruun Larsen’s goal, after Ait-Nouri went down under a challenge from Dara O’Shea, though Kompany reckons had been no contact between the two.

“Don’t get me on referees again!” Kompany said.

“But if we have to, of course, it was an issue. If you do a pirouette and you fall on your own, absolutely no contact made, then it’s just not a foul, I think we can all agree on this.

“But then as well the referee is in the best position ever, a really good position, he sees it, I can see it from three times as far as he is and for some reason there’s a decision made out of nothing.

“Then I look at my own team, and how we defend the set-play, that’s always the case, but yes, it’s a repeat and it doesn’t make it any easier.”

Here’s what fans are saying as Gary O’Neil echoes what former managers have said in frustration with the Wolves board…

@Mark4947: 4 different managers can’t all be wrong can they

@t_j_mcg: PSR will dictate we can’t have a big squad. Can’t have players sat on 30-40k a week playing here and there. The links to Che Adams and Josh Brownhill make perfect financial sense.

@ColinPep1: Shi insisted Nuno wanted to work with a small squad. Looking now that this wasn’t the case. Obviously he wouldn’t want 25 players all expecting to play week in, week out but the lack of options on the bench lost us the 2019 semi-final. This has been going on 5 years #wolves #wwfc

@Stuj4z: Anyone who is still licking their arse now need to take a good hard look at themselves. The sooner then fuck off the better

@wwfc_kanjar: The issue is they never seem to back a manager at the right time and when they have done, they’ve pissed money up the wall. Why did it take us so long to appoint a proper DOF? That was a negligent decision.

@adpr84: Quite the pattern forming here wouldn’t you say? Can’t say they haven’t been told.

@mattp462: Surely there’s no Fosun bootlickers left? As long as we stay in the Premier league they couldn’t care less, get them gone ❌

@mitchdavis_1: Jeff Is only arsed about spending money when his master Jorge Mendes orders him to drop his pants

@wg_wwfc: Get these fucking clowns out of our club. Fosun are not fit to own a PL club

@MatterYouDo: @Fosun_Intl @Wolves At what point is enough?

@DiggoryEthan: Every season seems to go exactly the same way after March. We bottle a game and lose which completely derails morale and miss out on Europe. Manager moans (rightfully so) about lack of squad depth and continues to do so. Fosun get annoyed and sack them. I beg GON is an exception.

@brixworthwolves: @fosun please smell the coffee 😱

@liamwwfc__: I wonder where this is going. Fosun need to open their eyes. Fund GON or find a buyer willing to.

@Mgwwfc_: Awful from Fosun ngl 4 managers on the bounce man

@gricey88: Common theme here @Fosun_Intl

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