After signing a new contract with the club, Gary O’Neil says the connection built between the team and fans over the past year is what makes him proud to be Wolves head coach.
Exactly one year after their arrival at the club, O’Neil and his staff signed new four-year contracts at Wolves, and with pre-season nearly compete and a new Premier League campaign on the horizon, the announcement only added to the excitement building at Molineux.
Reflecting on his journey over the past 12 months, when he steadied the ship and guided the Old Gold to an enjoyable season, O’Neil is proud of what’s gone before, but is now focused on continuing that positivity in the new season.
On signing a new Wolves contract
“I’m really pleased. Me and Matt [Hobbs] started discussing it towards the latter part of last season, but there was a lot of things going on and we thought it was best to keep ploughing on with the important stuff like the team, making sure we were in a good spot, and when the time arrived to discuss it, it was fairly straightforward from my point of view. I’m absolutely loving my time here, really enjoying it, my staff love it, my family love, so it’s felt a really special place for us over the past year and I’m looking forward to continuing the journey.
“I love every moment of it. It’s hard work, obviously, there’s always so much that needs doing. Me and Matt have been extremely busy over the last few weeks trying to get things in place. The good thing is here is the amount of support you get from Matt and the other guys in the training ground and offices. We’re doing our best to get the team in the best spot possible for next weekend. A big friendly tomorrow, which we’re looking forward to, getting back in front of the home fans and I’m delighted with the contract, so hopefully that will be replicated by the fans and we can enjoy tomorrow. The last dress rehearsal before we get ready for the Premier League.”
On what he loves about Wolves
“How much of a challenge it was at the start makes it feel much sweeter now. I understood the doubt in a young and inexperienced manager, who hadn’t done too much before. Results didn’t start off fantastically well and we had to work unbelievably hard to win people over. There’s the amount of help the team needed, because they were in a tough spot. They’d lost their manager and a load of experienced players. That challenge and seeing where we managed to get it to last season had a special feeling about it.
“The connection we managed to get between the team on the pitch and the guys in the stadium was incredible, with some of those fantastic results we had away from home, as home. That was the main thing for me, the connection between team and fans and I’m hoping to improve that again and see if we can take that on.”
On a first season to be proud of
“As with all seasons, you look back on parts of it fondly and parts of it where you’re slightly disappointed. Overall, for the football club to have to do what it had to do, not just me, Jeff, Matt and all the guys that worked on trying to get us in a better place financially, and to keep the squad in a place where we could be competitive – people could dream about Europe and we had a cup run – to never really be threatened by relegation, was a huge success.
“With basically every pundit in the world, we were always nominated for one of the favourites to go down. I’m sure certain people will think the same this year, where they’ll think we’ve lost our captain and not signed loads of players, so I’d guess people will start to write us off again this year and it makes the group stronger. The belief inside the dressing room is huge, we’ve made some really good changes in there which have helped us around mentality and how we work on things. I’m really looking forward to the season, there’ll be challenges of course, like there always is in a Premier League season, but I’m looking forward to trying to take it on from last year.”
On being prepared for the new season
“It will be a test. Obviously, we’ll have a really tough start with Arsenal, Chelsea and a few tough ones to follow, but we have to play them all, so it’s a real test of where we are and the work that we’ve done, and we get to go to the Emirates on the first day and put out there what we’ve been working on, see if we can cause them some problems, and over the course of the season I’m really confident the group can get enough results along the way to make sure we have a successful season.
“There’s still some bits to do in the transfer window that me, Matt and Jeff are still working really hard on, trying to position the squad even better than it is this moment. I know we’ve done some good stuff and the ones who’ve arrived have really helped us, but we still need to do a bit of work on juggling a few things around to make us balanced. All pre-season I’ve really enjoyed it, a good couple of trips, the lads have worked extremely hard and we’re ready to get going now.”
