O’Neil Rues Wolves Transfer Failings With Injury Concerns.
Wolves’ striking options have dwindled due to injury and Gary O’Neil has criticised transfer chiefs for failing to address the situation.
Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Gary O’Neil claims that he is frustrated with the lack of attacking signings made in January given the current striker crisis at his club – after he was forced to play 18-year-old Leon Chiwome in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Burnley.
Chiwome made his Wolves debut in the 2-0 loss at Aston Villa on Saturday as the lone striker, with Pedro Neto, Matheus Cunha and Hwang Hee-Chan all out of action for the west Midlands outfit; and that continued into the stalemate in Lancashire with Wolves massively struggling for goals from open play with Chiwome in the side. It’s extremely rare in the Premier League that a teenager starts leading the line, but with the injury crisis surrounding the club at present, O’Neil was left with no choice.
Wolves failed to bring a striker in over the January window, and whilst they have battled to some strong results since, it’s not an ideal scenario for the young boss – who vented his frustrations to the board after the draw against the relegation-strugglers.
Pedro Neto playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League
What Gary O’Neil Has Said About Wolves’ Striker Crisis
He didn’t hold back when talking about January recruitment
Speaking after Wolves’ draw with the Clarets at Turf Moor, O’Neil admitted he was clear with the recruitment team but they still failed to land the striker he craved due to injuries in their front line.
O’Neil said: “I was clear with them that we were overloading the players and I felt our injury record had a really good chance of getting worse during the second half of the season. On top of that, I also flagged how short we were in attacking positions and if we suffered even a couple of injuries to the top line it would make a huge difference to what we were able to produce.
“Unfortunately, the club were not in a position to be able to help us with that due to financial reasons. We had a Premier League number nine lined up to come in and help us and a fairly small amount of money stopped us doing it.
“The situation the club is in is showing now. You can see now why the aim at the start of the season was to stay in the Premier League. We have some unbelievable players but if you lose a couple, I’m trying to pick a starting XI from 12 fit senior outfield players.
“I would doubt there’s another club in the other 91 in the country that are down that low. The point of all that, is that the group are out on their feet and deserve massive credit. To fight like they do, they deserve huge credit, with 42 points surpassing last year’s total with eight games to go.
