Wolves boss proud of job amid pressure of sack

An improved performance at West Ham was not enough to avoid defeat as Wolves' frailties in defence were laid bare.

O'Neil has had to endure a self-sustainable business model imposed by owners Fosun that has seen Wolves sell their best players every summer and as he fights to keep his job, the 41-year-old says he is proud of his time at the club under difficult circumstances.

"In the same place I was," O'Neil said when asked where the defeat leaves his future.

"I understand the noise and the scrutiny, but when I arrived at this football club, it had just achieved 39 points in the Premier League. 

"Since then, we've managed to sell £200million worth of talent. If you start at 39 points and you take away £200million worth of talent, there's a fair chance that it's going to be tough.

"We were tipped to be relegated by every pundit in the country pretty much last season and we achieved some unbelievable things.

"More points, wins away at Stamford Bridge, at Tottenham against Man City at home, Tottenham at home, on the brink of an FA Cup semi-final, with a group that had lost Neves, Moutinho, Traore, Jimenez, Costa, Nathan Collins, Daniel Podence, and hadn't signed any Premier League players at that moment. 

"Then this summer we lose our captain in Max Kilman, and we lose Pedro Neto for a combined "£100 and we sign a load of young lads that are going to be great for the football club in the future.

"That is where the football club is. I'm happy to be judged and I will be judged on results and where I can get this team to, but it should be done in context.

"Whenever this journey ends with Wolves, I'll be proud of every moment that I've given to it.

"To have the players as committed and together as they are, with the amount of tough results they've had, and the amount of tough things they've had go against them, to still be able to come out and fight like that against West Ham, away from home, shows the good work that is done here every single day. 

"We need to improve, of course, and I'm sure when I sit with the people above me, the message will be we need to improve.

"And my message to them is, 'yeah, I know, and we're working every moment on trying to improve'.

"So let's hope that we improve against Ipswich and let's hope that maybe a few things go our way and we can put another win on the board."

A difficult night at the London Stadium got even worse at full-time as captain Mario Lemina was involved in a scuffle with West Ham's Jarrod Bowen, before then shoving team-mates Nelson Semedo and Toti Gomes and then going head-to-head with first team coach Shaun Derry.

"Mario's calm now," O'Neil said.

"He's obviously a passionate guy. Something that was said had upset him and then the instincts of all of the staff and players was to try and make sure that he didn't get himself in trouble and that we had him available for Ipswich.

"Obviously he took a bit of calming down at that moment, but everything's fine now. Staff, players, everyone understands that things like that can happen, especially in the heat at the moment.

"The group is 100 per cent focused now on getting ready for Ipswich."

When asked if Lemina's reaction speaks to the team and captain being too emotional, O'Neil added: "It speaks to the amount of pressure that the senior players are under at this moment because of the situation we find ourselves in.

"A lot of them have come and spoke to me recently about the situation at the football club. It's been tough for them, the senior players are trying to help the young ones that we've signed get up to speed, and improve our position in the table.

"Everyone at the football club is under a lot of stress and pressure at this moment.

"I'm sure when Mario sees it back, there may be things that he would have done differently, but we know that everything Mario does comes from a place of wanting to do well for the football club.

"It's one of those incidents that nobody likes to see, but they do happen in football.

"It shows that the team is still fighting and still together and when Mario was in a tough moment, everyone was trying to make sure that he didn't overstep and he didn't get himself in any trouble.

"We now move on to the next game."