Sporting director Matt Hobbs reveals Wolves contract plan

The 40-year-old, in just his second season as a head coach, has proved many doubters wrong by taking Wolves into European contention and an FA Cup quarter-final.

And now Hobbs admits the club will look to reward O'Neil in the summer when they begin contract talks.

"That's naturally where this is going, he's done well enough to have that conversation," Hobbs said.

"Part of the conversation will be the plan for the club and that's where you have to have the honest conversations about what it looks like going forward.

"That is an inevitable situation we find ourselves in this summer, for sure.

"But let's not talk about it at the moment, let's keep an eye on what we're trying to do. We want to finish the season well and have the FA Cup to look forward to.

"We have more to play for with the league and the squad drive that a lot.

"I was chatting to Mario just after Christmas and he said he is expecting us to be there or thereabouts for Europe. These players have an expectation on themselves that if they perform to the level they can, they believe they have the ability to get into the top eight.

"That's been their ambition and Gary is the same.

"No players are coming to talk to me about new deals or anything like that, we're keeping our eye on the job and in the summer we'll take care of everything else."

But with success comes attention, and O'Neil has begun to be linked with other jobs – most recently West Ham and England.

Hobbs, however, remains relaxed on the possibility of interest in O'Neil and insists Wolves will have a succession plan ready should he depart.

"They should be looking at him," Hobbs said on the reported interest in O'Neil.

"Gary is unbelievably meticulous. His attention to detail is incredible and his work ethic is incredible. His staff, not just him, are a big part of it as well.

"I saw him linked to the England job. I get it. When we met him, we thought there might be something special about him. He has not done anything to go away from that.

"He is still learning and developing and improving, but he has humility. He listens, we talk at the training ground all the time.

"He is excellent and I would be surprised if clubs weren’t looking at him. But that is no different to a player. You have to be ready for it. You have to do your work in the background on players.

"You have to expect someone will come in for Joao Gomes. Do I think Joao wants to go? No. But the way he is playing, there will be clubs watching him for sure. I know there are. But we have been doing work for the last year to have a replacement ready if he goes.

"Brighton have done it brilliantly over the last few years. They have done it on managers. But a lot of the stuff they have done so well, for me, it is a lot of calm thinking, a lot of business-savvy common sense.

"My job is the easiest job in the club if I get the right people around me. That’s the right players, the right coach, bringing Phil Hayward back as the head of medical. Then my job is just to glue those guys together and make sure they communicate. We will be doing work on other head coaches, not because we want Gary to leave but because that is the prudent thing to do."

When chairman Jeff Shi tasked Hobbs with finding Lopetegui's replacement, he spoke to a number of candidates before landing on O'Neil.

They met in London and O'Neil put his case forward for the job, while Hobbs and his staff did their homework on the budding young coach.

"I spoke to a lot of people, like we do with players," Hobbs said.

"With what he achieved at Bournemouth, maybe because the last three games didn't go as well and it felt like it petered out, but I thought that took some gloss off what he did and he was undervalued.

"To keep that squad up and do what he did was really impressive.

"He presented and I don't think anyone else spoke for the next couple hours. He was going through everything he'd done, how he'd developed individuals and the team, what his style is and how he knew our players and how he'd adapt our style, and then what he wanted to transition to over the next couple years.

"Also how he wanted help some of our important players and you can see all of our players have improved.

"I spoke to a lot of the guys at Liverpool. Some of the players and senior staff that were there at the time and the sporting director at the time. They confirmed everything I thought I saw at the meeting.

"It's about opportunity and a bit of belief in someone. Gary was frustrated after what happened at Bournemouth and I think he felt it was unjust, but that's football and it happens.

"He's got that personality. He took up golf and ended up as a plus four golfer. Everything he does he does to his absolute best.

"Everything he does he will get to the very highest level he can and in football that will be a very high level."

Regardless of the manager and who Wolves have in charge in the coming years, it is now all about strategy for Hobbs.

Wolves no longer want to pay extortionate transfer fees for flops or players that come for the money, they want to invest in assets that want to play for the club.

That does mean, however, that Wolves face the prospect of selling a big player to fund the team's evolution – similar to the Brighton mould – and Hobbs is prepared to do that in a time when Wolves must be cautious with their finances.

"Possibly what we’ve done in that space is slightly underrated," Hobbs said.

"From Rayan at £10million to Hugo at £5,000, Max at £40,000, Toti at £1million, Joao Gomes at £12million, Neto at £12million. You’re not going to get many Hugo's and Max's, I understand that, but Rayan, Pedro, Joao, that’s the perfect age and ability.

"They are not always going to work but you stand more chance of working if you have a manager who believes in them and plays them. I always want Gary, or whoever it is going forward, to buy into it and believe so they play them.

"Essentially every summer I probably have to sell someone at a high value. The fewer I can sell to raise money the stronger we will be as a club.

"Let’s say I want to raise £60million to invest in the next summer, if I can sell one to do that that’s much better than selling two or three.

"My job is to not spend money from Fosun if it comes. I’d rather that money go into the stadium, training ground, build something that leaves a footprint for the club and on the pitch we can be self sustainable, no problem."

When asked on selling players at their most valuable to fund the team being the club's model, Hobbs added: "100 per cent, it will be the same, but that’s absolutely fair and acceptable and fine. I don’t see why we feel we have a given right to expect people to put money in. It’s also not that easy to spend, look at Newcastle they can’t spend the money they’ve got."

Throughout the interview, Hobbs consistently mentions 'ambition' and 'strategy', and the balance Wolves must strike in achieving both.

Concerns among supporters will be around the club losing their best players in the summer, with Pedro Neto top of that list for the attention he is getting elsewhere.

But Hobbs insists no player in the squad has approached him about leaving and they are instead focused on finishing the season in style.

Although the sporting director admits Wolves want to be sustainable on the football side and a big sale would fund further evolution, he's also adamant that Wolves are not in a financial position this summer where they have a necessity to sell – meaning they can demand the appropriate fee for any individual.

"We're not in a position where we have to sell," he said.

"Realistically, for me, we don't want to sell more than two starters.

"But if big clubs come I've never been the person to stand in someone's way as long as we can reinvest in the right way to move forward.

"We showed with other players leaving last year that we're able to move forward with three or four starters going.

"We're always looking to improve and we have the ability to turn down big offers, but every player has their number as well.

"I'm not sure the same market is there now. I don't see three or four £100million players going.

"For me, there's no need and there's no players itching to get away. They've bought into Gary and everyone's on the same page."

With no conversations being had with players over departures, Hobbs says the same can be said for new contracts.

Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia – two of the highest paid players at Wolves – will both have a year left on their deals this summer.

The reason for no talks yet is partly down to the club's tunnel vision at finishing the season strongly, but also due to finances and the wages that pair are on.

Wolves made a £67million loss in the 2022/23 financial year, following a £46.1million loss the year prior, and were forced into a number of sales and limited additions last summer and this January.

In the club's forecasts for the 2023/24 financial year, which will not be released until this time next year, Wolves will come just under the Premier League's profit and sustainability threshold and not breach the rules.

Those figures, however, were done from a forecast of Wolves finishing 17th this season, which they are highly likely to beat.

But again, for Hobbs, it comes back to his and the club's strategy.

Wolves overspent in the summer of 2022 and again in January 2023 in order to survive relegation. Now, they have a far different recruitment plan on the field and a cautious approach off it, to ensure the club does not fall into difficulties.

Hobbs added: "If we stick to our strategy and don’t sway from it I don’t think it’s that difficult. The difficulty comes when we do what we did in summer 2022.

"Very high wage players, high transfer fees. There’s not enough work done on the people who come in, then you swap managers which is a problem because you build a squad for one manager which he believes in and then another comes and you have to rebuild.

"If you make good decisions and believe in it I don’t think there are lot of tough decisions.

"That’s why I say budget off 17th, not that I expect us to finish there, but then we don’t have to be reactive. We don’t have to sell our players cheaper than we want, or earlier than we want.

"The hardest part is, if you do it right – we have five or six players in the starting XI who could knock on my door and say ‘if we don’t qualify for Europe I want to play for a club in Europe’.

"We are lucky enough to have the players who can do that so that’s the hardest part of the job. Attracting these players, once they reach that level – not everyone is going to do a Ruben (Neves) and do two years longer than we thought.

"The perfect player for us doesn’t have to be a really expensive player. Everything comes back to the strategy – really stick to that, don’t get carried away, like it would be easy to do now.

"If we finish the season and just miss out (on Europe) it would be like: ‘If we just had a little bit of a go’, which is what the fans want to hear, I understand that, but we’re custodians so I have to make sure that whenever I leave the club it is in a better situation.

"We have got a whole club to grow here and stick to a strategy that keeps us scrapping for those European places – being an underdog to a certain extent, a disruptor for want of a better word.

"We’ve done it in the academy, that was our aim when I first came into the academy. And now the first team. I’ve not been frustrated by it at any stage. I like finding Max (Kilman), we find Joao before anyone else does it and that actually excites me more than going and spending £40million on a player."

But again it comes back to balance and Hobbs already touched on it – how do Wolves weigh up ambition with savvy business decisions?

Supporters always want more. If Wolves get into Europe this season, many will be asking what the next step is.

And Hobbs understands the responsibility he and the club have. The strategy is set and they hope continued success follows, and the sporting director believes in constant and open communication – such as this interview – to keep fans informed.

“We have to be honest," Hobbs said.

“Since I’ve come in we’ve tried to communicate better and be honest with fans.

“They will either like what I say or largely dislike what I say but what they can’t ever do is accuse us of is not communicating.

“But at the same time you have to find that way of giving them something to cling to and that but of excitement on a matchday and you can do that with the type of team you produce.

“They buy into Joao Gomes. Obviously the story helped with them not letting him come and the whole thing built up, but for me it’s about tying to get them to buy into the type of team we’re creating and get behind it that way and for us to constantly be looking to overachieve.

“It’s a real tough one to try to make self-sustainability with over-achieving because usually ambition comes with overspending.

“But I think the ambition of creating a team and doing it differently is what we try to get across.

“I will always tell them what the plan is and what we’re looking to do and that’s why we do stuff like this. I can’t please everyone but I think with most of our fans, if on a matchday they see the team representing them, they will buy into it and most of our fans are grafters who are out working.

“They want to see the players doing that on the pitch, which I don’t think they saw at the end under Bruno (Lage), which is how it became misaligned.

“Julen brought it back a little bit and in the end they will get behind them doing that.

“They will moan sometimes but they will get behind it.

“It was the first thing I said to Gary in our meeting and I said it the first time I sat with Julen – you have to put a team on the pitch that they(the fans) can see themselves in.

“I think we probably didn’t have that for a period of time but I think they can see it in this group."