Express & Star

Gary O'Neil speaks out on future of Wolves striker duo

Gary O'Neil has backed Fabio Silva to score goals for Rangers while suggesting Sasa Kalajdzic will not leave the club at the moment.

Published
Last updated

Silva joined the Scottish giants on a loan until the end of the season after not featuring for Wolves since early November.

The Portuguese U21 international enjoyed successful loan spells at Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven last season, but has failed to register a Premier League goal for Wolves since May 3, 2021.

"Fabio has obviously been around the squad since I've been here and played quite a lot of minutes early on," said the Wolves boss.

"It just felt better for him with where he is at the minute to go and play more regularly in a team where he should get minutes and should get a lot of opportunity to score goals.

"Rangers are one of the best teams in that league, he'll get lots of chances and a lot more game-time than he does here.

"Fabio is still young, so go away, work really hard on your game, come back in the summer and let's see where he's at."

Wolverhampton Wanderers' Fabio Silva reacts

Meanwhile O'Neil said fellow striker Sasa Kalajdzic would not be able to leave the club at the present moment, despite rumours linking him with a loan move to Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt.

"Sasa is still firmly part of the plans at the moment. He's a consideration every time we pick at team and every time we make a sub.

"At this moment in time, with the numbers we have, Sasa definitely won't be going anywhere."

But O'Neil did not completely shut down the possibility of the Austrian giant moving later in January window should Wolves be successful in making additions.

"As January moves, things can change and we have to bare in mind what he wants to do.

"However at the moment, with this small squad, there's no way Sasa will be able to move on."

Sasa Kalajdzic of Wolverhampton Wanderers celebrates after scoring his team's second goal Rayan Ait-Nouri (Photo by Jack Thomas - WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images).

The Wolves boss has always maintained his hope at bringing in fresh faces next month, but says the club need to be clever in their recruitment with Financial Fair Play still an issue.

"The transfer window is always tricky and there's been no secret of where we are as a club financially this season and what we're having to do.

"It's not as if the issues have vanished and we can go out and spend hundreds of millions of pounds on players again, we definitely wont be doing that.

"We're going to have to be really clever on how we do things."

Jonny has been told he can leave club in January following internal disciplinary issues, while Daniel Podence and Goncalo Guedes are currently on season-long loans at Olympicaos and Benfica respectively.

"There might have to be some who have to go out for us to bring some in, but we're working very hard to identify targets to fit where we are.

"As always my focus in on the group that we have, because that's what I signed up for.

"The group have given me absolutely everything and I'm happy to try and find the answers here.

"But of course January does give us a small window to try and add a couple of bits here or there that may be able to help us."