UPDATE: Premier League Club Unveils NEW MANAGER Just Days Before Season Starts

UPDATE: Wednesday, August 9 at 4:30 pm

WOLVES announced this afternoon, Wednesday 9, that Gary O’Neil has been installed as the club’s new manager. This follows yesterday’s departure of Julen Lopetegui.

Gary O'Neil has been appointed as our new head coach.

Welcome to the club, Gary 🤝

— Wolves (@Wolves) August 9, 2023

An official statement read: ‘Wolves have appointed Gary O’Neil as the club’s new head coach ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League season’.

It continued: ‘The highly regarded young coach moves to Molineux on a three-year-deal on the back of a successful season in charge of AFC Bournemouth, where he gained plaudits for improving performances and maintaining the club’s Premier League status’.

‘At 40 years of age, O’Neil becomes the Wolves’ youngest manager this Millennium and is the first permanent British coach to lead the club in six years, bringing Premier League experience after playing and managing at this level’ it added.

Wolves’ sporting director welcomed the new coach

Matt Hobbs, the club’s sporting director, commented: ‘We’re delighted to welcome Gary to the club. He’s a highly motivated young coach with strong principles and very well thought of by everyone he has worked with, and we’re excited to see what we can achieve together at Wolves’

‘Our players have shown their quality during pre-season, and I believe Gary and his team will continue to coach and improve them and will have success working with this group’, he continued.

He concluded: ‘Everyone at Wolves is looking forward to welcoming Gary, offering him their full support and working collaboratively to help the club to keep pushing forward together’.

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UPDATE: Wednesday, August 9 at 0:40 am

As had previously been expected, Julen Lopetegui parted ways with Wolves this Tuesday, August 8.

The club and Julen Lopetegui have reached an agreement to part ways, ending his nine month stay as head coach.

— Wolves (@Wolves) August 8, 2023

Gary O’Neil, the former Bournemouth AFC manager is positioned to take his place at Molineux, according to BBC Sport. The 56-year-old Spaniard reportedly ended his ninth-month stay in the Midlands by reaching a mutual agreement to leave the club.

Monday, August 7 at 9:23 pm

Before a ball has even been kicked, a Premier League manager is being tipped as the first managerial casualty of the new football season.

Julen Lopetegui is known to be far from happy with the current situation at Molineux. Although there have been some new signings at Wolverhampton Wanders during the summer transfer window, the coach is believed to be ready to walk away.

The Midlands outfit have recently lost some key players while Tom King, Matt Doherty, Boubacar Traore, and Matheus Cunha have all arrived.

Ruben Neves was tempted by a lucrative offer from the Saudi Pro League and the Portuguese midfield international subsequently signed for Al-Hilal. The Republic of Ireland centre-back Nathan Collins joined Brentford.

Mexican international striker Raúl Jiménez moved to Craven Cottage with Fulham with centre-half Conor Coady dropping down a league to play for Leicester City. Wolves have reportedly accumulated around £91 million from the sale of players this summer.

Lopetegui took charge of Wolves last November

Lopetegui took over at Wolves on November 14 last year, arriving from Sevilla in Spain’s La Liga. In his first season, the Spanish coach guided the club to 13th in the table.

According to Robert Calcutt at talkSPORT this Monday, August 7, if the Spaniard does decide to quit then he could be replaced by Gary O’Neil. The former Bournemouth manager is currently unemployed.

Gary O’Neil was fired by Bournemouth

Despite keeping the Cherries in the top flight after taking over from Scott Parker, O’Neil found himself out of a job at Bournemouth at the end of last season.

With the new season kicking off this Friday 11, the last thing that Wolves really need is a state of confusion. They face the worst possible start with a trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on August 14. A string of tricky matches follows that fixture, with Brighton and Liverpool among their next five opponents.

Rumours surrounding the potential sale of the club were quelled last week when Jeff Shi insisted that although the club faces ‘financial restrictions’, Fosun International Limited remained committed to Wolves, according to expressandstar.com on August 4.