There goes Julen!

[C.L.D]

The BBC has reported that the meeting at Compton has finished "amicably' and expect O'Neil to be appointed.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66437744

Sporting director Matt Hobbs recently said that Lopetegui was "committed" to the Molineux side, but fresh questions about the Spaniard's future are being raised following the publication of chairman Jeff Shi's open letter to fans

I feel like I missed something in Shi's ChatGPT word soup...

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Nope, I hope he fails and gets replaced in 10 games. Shi sees sense and appoints somebody decent.

Much like @Deutsch Wolf did with Lage.

That isn't what I hoped at all.

 

[Johnny75]

That isn't what I hoped at all.

Really?

You hid it well.

 

[Jeb01]

On the Wolves podcast yesterday, Johnny Phillips (Sky) was saying in effect that although FFP was a factor which needed to be dealt with, the main difficulty has been a change of policy by the money men of Fosun in Shanghai.
This has left Shi between a rock and a hard place with Lopetegui kicking off.
Apparently Lopetegui and his coaching staff were a very expensive package, even by EPL standards.
You have to wonder if Lopetegui’s heart was ever really in the project, unless Fosun were prepared to spend heavily and repeatedly to meet his requirements, and clearly they are not.
In those circumstances a parting of the ways was inevitable, and sooner rather than later, but the timing is truly awful.
Whoever comes in needs and deserves our full support.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

No, I did not hope we lost a load of games then sacked a manager in the middle of a season.

I thought it was a terrible idea to start with, but I wanted the team to do well. Would be perverse not to. Then it was even worse this time last year as we obviously should have sacked him based on the available evidence but we didn't. I still didn't want us to lose or hope the players didn't try.

Never once have I hoped Wolves would lose so we'd sack the manager. Not Lage, not Saunders, not Hoddle.

 

[Alan]

That isn't what I hoped at all.

Wanting the club to win matches, have a word with yourself!

 

[Dire Wolf]

I'd rather go for Michael Carrick at Boro than appoint O'Neil if we want young and up and coming. We won't, it's already signed and sealed by the looks of it.

 

[Mel Evo]

We’re away at Forest Masters weekend next April so he’ll miss a load of niggle at least - though I guess he’ll have plenty of time on his hands by then.

 

[The Bear]

I'd rather go for Michael Carrick at Boro than appoint O'Neil if we want young and up and coming. We won't, it's already signed and sealed by the looks of it.

The key there is spending compensation to a manager in a job, right after spending compensation getting rid of the existing manager.

They want someone cheap who'll keep their head down when given no money.

 

[C.L.D]

On the Wolves podcast yesterday, Johnny Phillips (Sky) was saying in effect that although FFP was a factor which needed to be dealt with, the main difficulty has been a change of policy by the money men of Fosun in Shanghai.
This has left Shi between a rock and a hard place with Lopetegui kicking off.
Apparently Lopetegui and his coaching staff were a very expensive package, even by EPL standards.
You have to wonder if Lopetegui’s heart was ever really in the project, unless Fosun were prepared to spend heavily and repeatedly to meet his requirements, and clearly they are not.
In those circumstances a parting of the ways was inevitable, and sooner rather than later, but the timing is truly awful.
Whoever comes in needs and deserves our full support.

If he is (was) so expensive then it makes even less sense to piss him off so much that right before the season starts he feels his place is untenable and they have to pay out him and his staff. Reminder: they wanted this guy. We are unlikely to ever have a manager of his quality again (however you judge his time here). £20M-£30M for 2-3 key signings is not unreasonable with the outgoings we've had.

Going backwards and expecting results/improvements from doing nothing is ludicrous.

Wont boo him or hate, but I have no faith in the next manager being anything more than a Lage-esque yes man and our relegation chances far higher than they were after the Rennes friendly. Favourites for 18th now.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

We can't know what the situation in the dressing room is (and what we've seen of pre-season was pretty encouraging, no doubt), but when the manager's blathering on in public that we're heading for relegation before a ball's been properly kicked, I wouldn't blame the players for getting hacked off, and judging by the way that things have gone over the past few days, it's only been getting worse.

You'll note that I've not said that the club is in any way blameless.

Grumbling is understating the case anyway - repeatedly briefing a sympathetic journalist about how shit your bosses are and how hard done-by you are over the course of several months goes quite a bit beyond that.

The mood in the dressing room is good, better than it should be at the moment, however they are like the rest of us just want to know what's going on

 

[Dire Wolf]

The key there is spending compensation to a manager in a job, right after spending compensation getting rid of the existing manager.

They want someone cheap who'll keep their head down when given no money.

Oh yeah, absolutely. We want someone who is not currently managing, there's no way we'd pay Boro the compensation it would take.

 

[The Bear]

indeed

 

[Alan]

Wouldn't that mean the deadline is passed, so he's staying?

 

[Wolvensam]

I suspect there will be an announcement on his departure tonight.

 

[Sniffer]

Yes its a great idea to spend money on paying off an expensive manager and his entourage and replacing him with a cheaper inferior manager risking relegation in the process. The jeopardy of last autumn should have been a warning to those in charge/who own us about how a shit decision can leave you playing Russian roulette with your place in the division and £100's of millions of pounds of income.

 

[Jeb01]

See your point about Carrick but the club clearly don’t want to start potentially lengthy managerial negotiations with any other club.
It cost a fortune to get Lopetegui and his coaching staff in, and it’ll cost another (but lesser) fortune to cut them free, so we will want someone immediately available.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they have spoken to Graham Potter - why wouldn’t they?

 

[pagey]

I'd rather go for Michael Carrick at Boro than appoint O'Neil if we want young and up and coming. We won't, it's already signed and sealed by the looks of it.

Me too, but ain't happening, would involve more compensation, probably the reason why he ain't been looked at.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they have spoken to Graham Potter - why wouldn’t they?

They probably have, and GP will have looked at the shit show, and thought no chance. I'll wait for a better job.

 

[Wolvensam]

Also, why would any half decent manager want to come here when their (possible) predecessor is saying he was lied to about transfer funds?