Gary O'Neil makes Jose Sa admission with decision to be made on Wolves goalkeeper

O’Neil insists that the Portuguese international will stay at Wolves until at least January to improve the competition among the goalkeepers, but expects Sa to push for a move in later transfer windows if he does not get back into the team.

“Jose knows that he needs to be here and he needs to fight,” O’Neil said.

“Of course, things can change in the future and I understand Jose Sa won’t want to be a number two for too long, especially at this stage of his career and the quality he has.

“You see it at other clubs where for a while you can keep two number ones together for a short time and then after that it becomes difficult. Look at Crystal Palace with Sam Johnstone and Dean Henderson.

“If Jose doesn’t get it here, I’m sure he’ll look in the future to go and get regular football somewhere else.

“But as it stands, conversations between me and him have been honest and professional with an understanding of the situation.”

When asked how he can keep Sa happy, O’Neil added: “He won’t be happy if he’s not playing and I wouldn’t expect him to be happy.

“But when I name the team there will be loads that are unhappy, it’s part and parcel and there’s no problems from me at all.

“Jose knows what I think of him and what the situation is and then we all have our own decisions to make around how we respond and how we handle it.

“But so far, with the way he’s trained and worked, he’s been excellent.”

It remains to be seen if Sa will take a place on the bench for Wolves, or whether Dan Bentley will keep his place as the club’s number two.

And when asked about Bentley’s reaction to potentially losing his spot, O’Neil admits the signing of Johnstone will have ruffled some feathers among his squad.

“With the extra goalkeeper being added, there is potential for everyone to have to move down the pecking order, or fight to stay where they were or fight to move up,” O’Neil said.

“It changes the dynamic in that group and I’m sure there will be more chance of more of them being unhappy for a while, but that’s the situation.

“We can’t moan last year that we didn’t have enough players and then moan this year because we’ve signed good players.

“It’s the Premier League, it needs to be competitive, and everyone needs to understand that we’re trying to do our best for the football club, which is at the heart of every decision made.”