Wolves first team coach Shaun Derry explains why Gary O'Neil was always destined for management

In fact, O’Neil and Derry had very little time together at QPR before the latter moved on, yet in that short time the veteran could see a future manager in his midfielder counterpart.

It took O’Neil another nine years to get his first job as a first-team head coach – still incredibly early in his coaching career – but Derry spotted the signs early.

“When we first met I was a young player at 22 and he was even younger at 17, so probably not so far back as our time at Portsmouth,” Derry said when asked if O’Neil showed signs of becoming a manager when he was a player.

“But definitely at QPR. I was coming towards the end of my career and Gary was 30, and he was very meticulous, organised and diligent in the way he approached his training. “You could tell he was a guy that listened a lot and took in information unbelievably well.

“Fast-forward a few years when I was the under-23s manager at Palace, he came in and spent some time with me as an analyst and that was the moment I saw his true potential. The work he was doing for me at Crystal Palace, albeit on a part-time basis, was incredibly detailed. That’s what has impressed all of us, the detail he goes into is really impressive.

“I had some brilliant managers that I worked under, a lot of senior figures in the game. I never had such a young manager like Gary.

“But to see him on the training pitch, giving examples of what he wants it to look like, he still has great quality as a player.

“I can only imagine what it looks like from a players’ perspective when you see your manager being able to do what he’s asking you to do. It’s quite impressive.

“We still like getting out on the pitch and getting involved. We got involved this morning and it puts a massive smile on our face because you like to think you can still do it and then your legs tell you a different story!”

But behind every good head coach are the staff members that make success a reality.

Assistant head coach Tim Jenkins, first-team coaches Derry and Ian Burchnall, and goalkeeping coach Neil Cutler make up O’Neil’s immediate backroom staff.

Woody Dewar came in as an analyst shortly after, but the majority of Wolves’ support staff already employed by the club stepped up into more senior roles when Julen Lopetegui and his large backroom team departed and O’Neil arrived with just days to go before the start of the season.

In the chaos of those dramatic few days Wolves produced a magnificent display at Old Trafford that deserved more than a loss – but the coaches learned more about their new colleagues in the process.

“We came in days before the Manchester United game so we didn’t have the benefit of a pre-season where you can go and meet people at a more relaxed level,” Derry added.

“It was straight into work mode and with that you see people under pressure, which is when you can truly make a judgement of what people’s characters and personalities are – and it’s been remarkable.

“There’s been nothing but help given to all of us. It’s been a really good start. It’s been brilliant and everybody has helped us settle.

“People talk about football clubs and automatically you look at the management and the team around it, but as we all know there’s a bigger team here and a collection of good people who have helped us all.

“The support staff here have been fantastic and we’re all really appreciative of that.”

Not only did Derry and O’Neil have their history together at Portsmouth and QPR, but they also lived near each other with their families and the pair kept in touch.

But arriving at Wolves was not only the chance to follow a friend into a new job, Derry has had long-held admiration for the club from afar.

Often playing against Wolves as an opposing player, Derry has fond memories of when right-back Danny Butterfield played up front and scored a hat-trick in an FA Cup win for Crystal Palace. Remarkably, Butterfield only played as a striker because manager Neil Warnock’s wife Sharon had a dream about it before the game.

But now working for Wolves, after leaving his role as first-team coach at Palace, Derry feels at home at a ‘giant’ of a club.

He said: “I had a great four years at Palace in a coaching capacity, first in the academy and then stepping up into the first team – on the back of two terms there as a player – it was brilliant. Crystal Palace will always be a team that is very close to me.

“But in this particular moment when the call came in from Gary, I really fancied it. Firstly I fancied working with him, and secondly, I know all about Wolves.

“I’ve played up here so many times on opposing teams and I know what this football club is all about. It’s a giant of a football club, a one club city.

“Whenever we’ve played up here in the past I’ve always come away thinking what it must have been like to play for that football club. It also reminds me of the clubs I’ve played for in the past. It has that spit and sawdust about it, a real working class part of the country and it feels like that when you’re on the sidelines at Molineux.”

Within the coaching set-up under O’Neil, the staff have naturally found their places and Derry works predominantly with the defenders.

After that opening day defeat to United, the 4-1 loss to Brighton and the low of the Carabao Cup defeat at Ipswich, Wolves have had a remarkable turnaround that has seen them beat Manchester City and Spurs.

A tumultuous summer that saw several big-name players depart and the manager jump ship has resulted in Wolves proving many doubters wrong – and for the players who remained at the club, the key word was ‘opportunity’.

Derry said: “It proposed a great opportunity for the new batch of players to take the bull by the horns and seize an opportunity to grab a shirt.

“We could talk about four or five players that are performing now on a different level to what you guys would have seen last year, and that’s only down to opportunity.

“If five players leave, there’s a vacant five spots in the squad, and suddenly a Pedro Neto absolutely flies out the traps and sets the world alight with his performances.

“Arguably, that might not have happened if the same group of players stayed and if the previous manager stayed for another season. Who knows?

“It’s a juggernaut. A fast-moving game we’re working in, and it’s only from belief and trust can you produce those performances, and then you see a performance like against Spurs that everyone is unbelievably proud of. For the players, it’s their career.

“We’ll be here either a short time, medium time or long time, you just don’t know.

“But these players should be hopeful of having careers up until 35 years old and their standards are set every day by themselves, not by us.

“We can help and guide, but the players push each other constantly. The competitive nature in training is there every day. If you constantly produce those sessions, then the performances come on a Saturday as well.”

Plenty of players have taken that opportunity – but none more so than Rayan Ait-Nouri.

A player who was frozen out under Lopetegui and due to leave in the summer – the defender has had a superb run of form that has seen him become one of the first names on the team-sheet under O’Neil.

“It would probably be Rayan,” Derry said when asked which player has surprised him the most.

“He’s surprised me. Not that I wasn’t a big fan of Rayan, we’ve come up against him with Crystal Palace a number of times, but to see him live and see just what quality he has.

“Pedro is a player that really excites me, and Rayan’s the same. Being so young, there’s so much more to come in his career.

“He’s been a really positive surprise. He’s been brilliant.”

Another consistent performer has also caught the eye.

Nelson Semedo can be frustrating at times, but he has certainly found some consistency in recent months under O’Neil.

What has never been in doubt is his character in the dressing room, as part of the squad’s leadership group.

“You hear about players and know they’re good players, but you don’t quite know just how good they are because you’ve not seen a lot of them,” Derry added.

“Somebody like Nelson Semedo, I knew he was a good player, but getting to know him on a personal level and spending more time with him, you see what an unbelievable character and personality he is.

“He brings a lot of joy to all of us. It’s great to work alongside people like that. We know he’s a good player, he’s played for Barcelona and he’s a top player, but when you work with top people as well it makes the job even better.”

Sitting 12th in the league and with a number of eye-catching results, Wolves are in a good place.

The goal is now long-term consistency and stability before ambition takes hold.

As a result, Derry refuses to get carried away after just 12 Premier League games – but the future, they hope, is bright.

“We’re all aware of just how quickly things can change positively and negatively in the Premier League, it’s an unforgiving league,” he said.

“We’re happy and proud of the work that has taken place, but we have to back ourselves as well.

“I know Gary and how much he backs his own ability, which is absolutely right, and we feel as a collective that we can keep this good moment going.

“This club has had some brilliant highs and pretty disappointing lows in recent years, so we would like the highs to stay more consistent.

“We feel, maybe over the course of time, that can be the case.”