Gary O’Neil vows to make Wolves even fitter as he prepares for his first game in charge of the club following Julen Lopetegui’s sensational departure with Man United’s Erik ten Hag looming
Gary O’Neil vows to make Wolves even fitter as he prepares for his first game in charge of the club following Julen Lopetegui’s sensational departure with Man United’s Erik ten Hag looming
- Gary O’Neil will make Wolves a much fitter team ahead of the first game in charge
- O’Neil was appointed as the club’s new boss after Julen Lopetegui left earlier this week
- Click here to watch Mail Sport’s brand new show ‘It’s All Kicking Off’ in full
Gary O’Neil has vowed to make Wolves a fitter team as he prepares to take his new club to Manchester United for his first game.
The former Bournemouth boss has taken the reins at Molineux after Julen Lopetegui left earlier this week. Lopetegui was in charge for just 27 games but felt unable to stay due to Wolves’ restrictive transfer policy.
Saturday’s training session is only O’Neil’s third practice with the side, but he has already identified an area for improvement.
“They’ve probably had a pretty rough preseason in terms of duration,” said O’Neil. “We’ve had some tough days and they seemed to be finding it pretty tough.
“They worked hard, but it seemed like they could feel it a little bit, which is to be expected. It’s a new stimulus, different things we do.
Gary O’Neil takes on his first game as Wolves boss on Monday against Man Utd
Julen Lopetegui left Wolves this week after becoming frustrated with the club’s transfer policy
“But I think they’re in a good place. If you look at the games they’ve played in the pre-season, they look fit, ready to go. Can we get them fitter? Probably. We’ll talk to the guys here, we’ll work hard.
“As in any season, you always get fitter as it progresses to a certain point and then in the second half of the season it’s a little less.
They are in good condition, but as with everything we can always improve.’
O’Neil will also hold talks with chairman Jeff Shi ahead of the game against United, before meeting him when he returns to England next week.
In a departure from previous management appointments, Shi was not the driving force behind the decision to hire O’Neil, with sporting director Matt Hobbs leading the hiring process.
Shi, owner Fosun’s husband on the Wolverhampton ground, is currently in his native China, but is expected to be in Molineux for next weekend’s Brighton game.
O’Neil has only had three training sessions with his new players since taking over as manager
“I haven’t spoken to the chairman yet,” O’Neil said. “I expect to speak to him shortly and when he returns we will meet in person.
“There is a real interest around the short term.
It would be naive and waste a lot of energy to think about long-term visions.
The short term has to look as good as possible and we are really focusing on Manchester United.”
(TagsToTranslate)dailypost