Wolves boss Gary O’Neil has been speaking ahead of his side’s Premier League opener against Arsenal on Saturday. The new Premier League season is almost here, with Fulham and Manchester United kicking things off on Friday night.
Arsenal will be aiming to get off to a fast start this season as they look to go one better than the last two seasons, looking to win the Premier League title ahead of Manchester City and others. Wolves enjoyed a fine season of last, and they will be looking to build on the momentum they established in Gary O’Neil’s first season in charge.
Ahead of Saturday’s clash, Wolves have been dealt a fitness boost in the form of last summer’s big-money signing Matheus Cunha. O’Neil confirmed in his pre-match press conference: “Cunha is fine and raring to go. He’s worked hard to get back and he’s feeling very good. There’s no concerns around him, which is a big boost for us.”
Wolves have lost key players this summer, with Pedro Neto recently joining Chelsea and Max Kilman having left for West Ham early in the summer window. “Those guys, we need to replace them,” O’Neil told Sky Sports. “They are a huge part of what we were. Max played every minute of every game and Pedro had a huge involvement in loads of our goals and loads of our big results.
“Two of the club’s best players. We are working very, very hard on trying to replace them. Of course, where the club is financially is very different to where it was a few years ago. We need to be cuter with how we do things, and it might not be like-for-like.”
The Wolves boss added: “We have the best interests of the club at heart, so we try and make sure the team is ready for now. We need both, people who are Premier League-ready and can go straight into the team, and the club need to sign assets to keep itself in a sound place financially.
“Recruitment has been asset-driven and we are hopeful that we can balance that slightly, to get some that are Premier League ready – as well as maybe a couple more younger ones. The balance is managing the long-term health and short-term is very important, otherwise you never get to the long-term. The next few weeks will be key for us.”
Calming expectations
With such key exits and no replacements brought in just yet, O’Neil has warned that fans need to be careful with their expectations, even if he and his team will be pushing to break into the European spots.
“Whatever we are at this moment, to be £80m in profit for this window and to raise the targets, you need to manage your expectations,” he added. “I want to finish as high as possible and push for Europe again. But there are a lot of things that need to go into that. The top six will be the top six and we will be in the group below that. We want to fight as hard as we can to get to the six.”
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