Skip to content

Wolves fire O'Neil, reportedly working to hire Pereira from Al-Shabab

Jack Thomas - WWFC / Wolverhampton Wanderers FC / Getty

Gary O'Neil has been sacked as head coach of struggling Wolves after four straight Premier League defeats, the club announced Sunday.

Wolves are reportedly working to hire Vitor Pereira as O'Neil's replacement. The Portuguese tactician is currently under contract with Saudi side Al-Shabab, but Wolves are ready to pay his release clause to facilitate the move.

Wolves are second from bottom of the table with nine points from 16 games after Saturday's 2-1 home defeat to fellow strugglers Ipswich.

Emotions spilled over at full-time as Rayan Ait-Nouri was shown a second yellow card and Matheus Cunha also had to be restrained.

O'Neil, 41, was appointed in August 2023 following the departure of Julen Lopetegui and signed a new four-year deal with the club in August.

Wolves finished 14th in his first season at the club but have found themselves in a relegation scrap during the current campaign.

Frustrations also boiled over in Monday's defeat to West Ham when Mario Lemina scuffled with Jarrod Bowen after the full-time whistle, resulting in the Wolves midfielder being stripped of the captaincy.

Wolves were then beaten by Jack Taylor's stoppage-time header on Saturday. Following the full-time scuffles, O'Neil said his players needed to "take some responsibility".

"We deal with things like that very, very seriously, as you saw last week," O'Neil said.

"It's annoying in that we've got enough to do at this moment in time, we've got enough to fix without me having to spend time on things that go on off the pitch.

"So the players do need to take some responsibility. But I'll help them with all of it so we get back to work on Monday morning."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox