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BBC News
6 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Rodri and Grealish take part in open training session
Manchester City have been boosted by the return of key midfielder Rodri following an injury picked up at the Club World Ballon d'Or winner came on as a second-half substitute in the shock last-16 defeat by Al-Hilal, but left the pitch early in extra Pep Guardiola said afterwards the player "complained about his situation", which was thought to be a minor groin the 29-year-old took full part in Tuesday's open training session at Joie Stadium and appears to be fit for the Premier League season-opener at Wolves on 16 Jack Grealish was left out of the squad for the Club World Cup and, during that period, he has been working individually at City's training club invited supporters to watch the training session and Grealish was part of the group being put through their 29-year-old is said to be of interest to Everton but sources say City are yet to receive any offers for the England there was an interesting observer in former Wolves and Bournemouth manager Gary O'Neil, who was sitting in the dugout during the by BBC Sport why he was there, O'Neil said he was "spending the day with Guardiola" and talking through "a few things".
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Analysing a rare interview with Wolves chairman Jeff Shi
When Jeff Shi speaks, Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters listen. That is because, in terms of genuine interviews, the club's executive chairman speaks fairly infrequently. So when the Business of Sport podcast posted a chat with Shi lasting well over an hour on Monday afternoon, Wolves fans will have taken a keen interest. Advertisement But what did Shi actually say? What did it mean? And what will Wolves supporters make of it? There were some things that were new, including assessments by Shi of his and Wolves' failings during his nine years at the helm, a frank assessment of the end of Gary O'Neil's Molineux reign and a new take on the Fosun glory years under Nuno Espirito Santo. But there were some familiar lines, too, including Shi's vision of how Wolves can grow, his views on Wolves' women's team and his plans for the stadium. The Athletic has listened and analysed some of the main topics covered by Shi with hosts Harry and Charlie Stebbings… The period from 2017 to 2020, in the early years of Fosun's ownership, will always be remembered by supporters as among the most enjoyable in Wolves' post-war history. They brought promotion from the Championship as champions, successive seventh-place finishes in the Premier League, appearances in an FA Cup semi-final and Europa League quarterfinal, and the presence of some modern-day greats on the playing staff, managed by the hugely popular Nuno Espirito Santo. Yet Shi seemed keen to express his view that Nuno's successes came with the Portuguese as a one-man leadership group, achieving things despite the infrastructure beneath him, not because of it. 'We were good at the beginning but we didn't achieve that because we had a good foundation at the club,' he said. 'Now I am trying to build those strong foundations for success in the future.' Supporters probably care little about the lack of substance Shi believes was present in those years, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that they owed almost everything to the quality players provided by Jorge Mendes's Gestifute organisation with a consistent flow that he has not replicated in more recent times. Shi admitted Wolves had struggled in the years since Nuno's departure, although he defended Fosun's record of delivering the club's longest period in the top division since the 1970s. And in Shi's view, the main issue seems to have been his own attempt to take a less hands-on approach to running the club. Advertisement He pointed to how his attempts early in Fosun's ownership to spend most of his time in Shanghai had not worked, and claimed his efforts to spend more time pursuing his other interests in recent years had also backfired. 'In the last few years I didn't spend enough time here but now I realise I have to be inside the training ground, in the building and try to do something until one day I can find one or two guys to do my job here,' he said. 'In football they need a leader to tell them what to do and show them what to do and if I intended to leave a bit then people started to feel a little bit disoriented.' Aside from spending more time with his hand firmly on the tiller, Shi spoke about his desire for better communication and more alignment between senior staff at the club. But there was no attempt to step back from his overriding belief that Wolves' main opportunities for growth come away from elite football, with projects such as esports and the club's music label, targeting mainly fans outside the club's traditional core supporter-base. 'That means a lot of different adventures for our business but in the meantime we are happy and very confident we can compete in the league itself,' he said. 'You can do everything else but if you lose your position in the league it is no use so we have to do the two things together. 'I am totally against a traditional way to do football. People like to talk about a fancy new stadium, fancy new owners, spending one or two billion buying fancy new players. 'That model is OK for fans, it's OK for the government and it's OK for the city maybe, but it's not OK for the owners. I've seen so many owners who spend money and lose money, they go and nobody remembers them.' It is the kind of message that Shi has sent out before and one guaranteed to irk sections of the club's match-going fanbase. Few supporters will take issue with Fosun's desire to explore other revenue streams, but Shi's messaging still suggests that doing so is as important to the owners as providing more seasons like Nuno's. Advertisement And that is certain to annoy the fans who have sustained Wolves for generations and would continue to do so if they lost their Premier League status and with it much of their international profile. Shi admitted Wolves were too slow to sack O'Neil, claiming that by the end of his reign the team had lost a little of its leadership and discipline. He also claimed Wolves' squad was too strong to have spent as long as it did in the bottom three before Vitor Pereira stepped in and dragged it up the table. Pereira's successes suggested a level of underachievement at the end of O'Neil's time in charge, but the former head coach would doubtless point to the failure to recruit the centre-back he desperately wanted last summer — an error that was rectified only after he was sacked with the signing of Emmanuel Agbadou. And Shi spoke of the need for head coaches to understand Fosun's vision for Wolves. 'Some coaches just don't even try to have chemistry with me so it's tough,' he said. 'If we can't have that, the coach can't stay longer.' Peace has broken out in the stand-off between Shi and Wolves Women, with the club announcing a new commitment to push for promotion to the second tier after the furore over Wolves' failure to apply for the licence required last season. But Shi again made clear his annoyance with the need to provide financial assurances in advance of achieving promotion. 'If you are organising a new league for 20 clubs you can do that (ask for commitments in advance),' he said. 'But at the moment football in the UK is still about the pyramid and teams want to compete with the big guys. 'At Wolves we are OK to spend but I feel this kind of procedure in the middle of the season is strange.' Fosun's failure to redevelop or expand Wolves' home in line with plans unveiled early in their reign is a regular bone of contention with fans. Advertisement The ground's atmosphere and location near Wolverhampton city centre remain its biggest selling points but in places it looks tired and in need of a facelift, while in others the facilities need considerable improvements. Shi confirmed he is looking for partners to develop the Steve Bull Stand — the oldest stand at Molineux — but that significant increases to the capacity of the ground are not on the cards and that plans will prioritise corporate customers on matchdays and beyond. That also has the potential to annoy fans who want their outlay on tickets rewarded with an improved experience for all fans. 'We have a very old stand, the Steve Bull Stand, which is too old so the next plan is to try to change a bit there and build more areas for hospitality for more business clients to come and enjoy there,' said Shi. 'The goal is not to rebuild the stand or the stadium but more to tweak and optimise it.' Top image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
The Guardian
29-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘I've had some honest conversations with myself': Gary O'Neil keen to step back on to management train
'The journey's been pretty high speed,' Gary O'Neil says as he opens up on a whirlwind start to his managerial career. 'When you're in work it's different because there's always another massive game coming, whereas this has really given me time to have a deep dive into everything. The real benefit is the chance to breathe.' Sometimes there is an upside to life slowing down. O'Neil has had time to reflect and ask himself tough questions in the seven months since his sacking by Wolves. Why did it unravel after such a promising start? O'Neil is hungry. He has devoted a lot of time to studying set pieces and speaking to experts in the field given that a poor record at dead balls played a big part in Wolves' struggles this past season. O'Neil is not bitter about Wolves, who were 19th in the Premier League when they decided it was time for a change. The 42-year-old is happy that Vítor Pereira guided the club to safety. It is worth pointing out that O'Neil had not been coaching long when Bournemouth asked him to go from first-team coach to interim manager after a 9-0 defeat by Liverpool led to Scott Parker's departure at the start of the 2022-23 season. He started at Liverpool's academy and remembers making little mistakes in training. It was part of the learning process. 'It's been two and a bit full-on seasons of Premier League football straight in,' O'Neil says. 'I don't think you'll find many people in any industry who feel they've hit their peak after two years. I knew there were going to be gaps because that's the journey. You close your gaps the longer you're in it.' O'Neil has been to St George's Park to speak to the Football Association's technical director, John McDermott, and to deliver presentations to aspiring coaches. He has been to the rugby league side Wigan Warriors to observe their manager, Matt Peet. O'Neil loved seeing how Wigan's players took responsibility for their preparation. Experiencing those cultures has left O'Neil thinking about how to build his own at his next club. Bournemouth's squad was easy to manage. They finished 15th in their first year back in the top flight. Bill Foley's takeover was in the works and O'Neil was told that survival was key. He adjusted his tactics accordingly. No promoted side have stayed up since but O'Neil was replaced by Andoni Iraola at the end of the year. He is proud to have played a part in Bournemouth's rise. What does O'Neil make of the debate around a manager's philosophy. 'I don't like the word,' he says. 'The time you use your philosophy the most is actually in the job interview. In the two jobs I've gone into we've had to be incredibly adaptable. 'I have a real clear way in how I want my team to play. When I got to Wolves there wasn't all the components there that would have fitted into exactly what I wanted this to be. It had been a back five for a very long time.' O'Neil was parachuted in at Molineux after Julen Lopetegui left on the eve of the 2023-24 season. His first season featured doubles over Chelsea and Tottenham, a precious win at West Brom in the FA Cup and a stunning victory over Manchester City. 'You go through the goals we've scored, some of the quality, some of the results,' O'Neil says. 'Even the Fulham game last season, so much was off the training ground. There's a win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge when we got four moves we'd worked on since we got there. 'If you only focus on the end, you can convince yourself that it was an unsuccessful experience, but it wasn't. We stayed at Wolves for a very long time. We've got that whole group of players from different cultures to buy into my way.' O'Neil, who really started thinking about management when an ankle injury threatened to end his playing career in 2011, has come prepared. He offers an insight into his methods and rigour by bringing up clips of his work with Pedro Neto and Matheus Cunha in training. He talks about using Neto on the right and teaching him how to become more unpredictable by coming in off the flank. Bukayo Saka was a reference point for the Portugal winger. O'Neil got into Neto about his final ball, telling him it had to be better if he wanted to play for a top club. There were endless drills on cutbacks with his right foot and inswinging crosses with his left. 'I was fortunate that Matheus and Pedro were both at an age where they were still ready to lap that stuff up,' O'Neil says. With Cunha, he focused on turning the Brazilian into an inside left who could get into positions to bend shots into the far corner with his right foot. So much work went into changing the new Manchester United forward's mentality; into making him more diligent without diminishing his maverick talent. Selling Neto to Chelsea last summer was disappointing. 'It was a tough phone call,' O'Neil says. 'We'd had a fantastic pre-season. It had been fairly quiet around him. We'd discussed that we might lose him. But then there's not too much going on. We'd started to develop his relationship with Nélson Semedo on that side. Then Chelsea come and there was only going to be one outcome.' Wolves were not in a strong financial position. Their defence was weaker after they sold their captain, Maximilian Kilman, to West Ham. A challenge for European qualification during O'Neil's first year fizzled out as injuries in attack bit. Fans grumbled after Wolves, who finished 14th despite being tipped to go down when Lopetegui left, lost at home to Coventry in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. O'Neil offers context, saying the absence of Neto, Cunha and Hwang Hee-chan forced him to promote youth and use makeshift players in attack. He loved the challenge but understood the realities. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Momentum eluded Wolves, the pressure rising at the start of the season. 'No matter how we played we still found a way to concede goals,' O'Neil says. 'Some of the data shows that we were still improving but we were never able to get a result. We're better than Newcastle for 70 minutes at home and lost 2-1. We took Manchester City close and concede a corner in the last minute.' Wolves had conceded 20 times from set pieces by the time O'Neil went. They had already sacked their set-piece coach, Jack Wilson, after losing 5-3 to Brentford. O'Neil points out that his defence was ravaged by Kilman going, Craig Dawson returning from groin surgery and Yerson Mosquera sustaining a serious knee injury. 'A lot was down to the bad luck of us missing people with aerial presence during that period,' he says. 'The more you concede, the more the confidence starts to drop. But things not going well forces your focus on to them. In my time between Bournemouth and Wolves, would I have been looking at set pieces much? Probably not. But because of how Wolves finished up it increases my focus. We'll definitely be much better at them the next time we go in.' O'Neil had a lower net spend than managers at similar clubs during his time at Wolves. The data was also favourable. Wolves' expected goals improved under O'Neil. But he accepts that results were not good enough. 'I felt we needed to get to January,' O'Neil says. 'We needed to plug the hole at the back. We signed a lot of players in the summer, but a lot of young players. We were going to try and have some older ones ready to go in. I always felt like we'd have enough to turn it around but in the end you accept your fate.' It did not help that there were flashpoints towards the end of O'Neil's time. Mario Lemina was stripped of the captaincy after clashing with teammates and squaring up to a member of the backroom team after an unlucky 2-1 defeat by West Ham. There were also angry scenes after O'Neil's final game, which ended in a 2-1 defeat by Ipswich. 'I think the players were incredibly frustrated on the inside and in the dressing room,' O'Neil says. 'We were still 100% together. There wasn't any letup at all. That West Ham game, we gave everything. But there were issues at the time, and the club were able to fix them in January.' Now for the next challenge. One charge against O'Neil is that he can be too emotional in post-match press conferences. 'I try to be honest,' he says. 'I'm really calm on the sideline. But I think it is important that you have some emotion in the job. It can be powerful for players. I'll always try and find the right balance and it will have been on my list of things that I looked at in my time out. 'There's been some honest conversations with myself in the mirror, with some of my coaching staff, with people that I trust around what we need to do. We're two years in and it's gone very quickly. Sort of like a high-speed train. You're on it and there's no real opportunity to get off. But now that we've managed to have a little debrief and figure out what the next one looks like, you pick the next train. You get ready to go again.'
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jonas Wind looking for new challenge as Wolfsburg contract extension 'impossible'
Jonas Wind looking for new challenge as Wolfsburg contract extension 'impossible' Jonas Wind is looking for a new challenge as a contract extension at VfL Wolfsburg remains 'almost impossible', according to Kicker. The 26-year-old striker currently has one year remaining on his current contract, but so far is reluctant to sign an extension at the Auto Club. Advertisement As per reports, there are currently no signs of any clubs interested in the Danish international. However, as per our reporting in March, a trio of Premier League clubs were previously monitoring the striker. One of those clubs was Wolves, who at the time were under now former boss Gary O'Neil. However, the West Midlands side will be in the market for a forward given the recent sale of Matheus Cunha to Manchester United. Wind had a lightning start to the 2024/25 season, but much like Wolfsburg themselves, the striker struggled for form in the second half of the campaign. Wind finished with nine goals and three assists in the Bundesliga last term. Should no offer come in for Wind this summer, it's likely that the player will run down his contract and leave as a free agent in 2026. GGFN | Jamie Allen
BBC News
16-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Gossip: O'Neil tipped to replace Blades boss Wilder
Sheffield United have made former Bournemouth and Wolves boss Gary O'Neil, 42, their number one target to replace Chris Wilder as manager. (The Sun), externalHull City want to sign ex-Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie, 29, from Las Palmas after the Spanish side's relegation from La Liga but may face competition from his former club if Chris Wilder remains as Blades manager. (Hull Daily Mail), external Want more transfer news and rumours from the EFL? Take a look at Monday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport
