Chris Sutton destroys Gary O'Neil after Wolves sack in 'massive' claim

Gary O’Neil “massively underachieved” at Wolves and his sacking was to be expected as a result, Chris Sutton has claimed as he piled in on the former manager.

The 41-year-old was one of two Premier League bosses to lose his job on Sunday (15 December), with Russell Martin also being dismissed by Southampton.

It has been a dismal season so far for the Midlands club who sit 19th in the Premier League table with just nine points from 16 league games meaning they are five points from safety, leading to O’Neil’s dismissal.

That came after Wolves were beaten 2-1 in the last minute during a bad-tempered clash with Ipswich Town at the weekend, with O’Neil heavily critical of his squad post-match.

Sutton is seemingly far from impressed with the 41-year-old’s efforts at Molineux this season, and accused him of throwing his players “under the bus” along the way.

Speaking in response to those two sackings on the It’s All Kicking Off podcast, the former Blackburn and Celtic striker said: “I’ve got greater sympathy for Russell Martin than I do for Gary O’Neil, just based on Southampton, him getting Southampton promoted I think they have the weakest squad in the Premier League.

“Wolves have been a stable Premier League side now for what, six seasons, and I think that Gary O’Neil has massively underachieved.

“I get all that they sold [Max] Kilman, didn’t replace him, they sold [Pedro] Neto, didn’t replace him, and I understand all that but he’s been a massive underachiever Gary O’Neil.

“He’s thrown his players under the bus and no great surprise, you cannot leak 40 goals as they have done this season, two-and-a-half goals per game and expect to stay in the Premier League so he has massively underachieved.”

Gary O’Neil has been well below-par with Wolves this season

Football Insider Opinion

During both his time with Bournemouth and for most of last season at Molineux, O’Neil showed just how good a manager he can be.

The 41-year-old did an impressive job with the Cherries in particular, and had made a hugely promising start to his time in charge of Wolves.

There is perhaps also an argument that he has been hugely unfortunate with some of the refereeing decisions that have gone against his side in recent times.

Regardless of that though, having done so well in the past, it is hard not to feel as though he has underwhelmed considerably with what he has got from this team in the last few months.

Indeed, when you consider some of the quality he still had available to him at Wolves – Matheus Cunha and Jorgen Strand Larsen have both excelled at times in tough circumstances this season – he surely should have been getting more from this squad.

And with discipline seemingly having deserted the squad in recent weeks after post-match clashes against both West Ham and Ipswich it doesn’t reflect well on his control.

With that in mind, it will be intriguing to see just what sort of role O’Neil is able to get for his next job in management now that his departure from Molineux has been confirmed.

In other news, an update has emerged on Wolves’ pursuit of Vitor Pereira.

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