Wolves boss O’Neil signs new four-year deal

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil and his backroom team have signed new four-year deals.

The 41-year-old held informal talks at the end of last season, and there was always a desire from the club to finalise a fresh contract.

Assistant head coach Tim Jenkins, first-team coaches Shaun Derry and Ian Burchnall, head of goalkeeping Neil Cutler and first-team coach analyst Woody Dewar have joined him in signing new deals.

“I’m absolutely loving my time here,” O’Neil said.

“My staff love it, my family love it, so it’s felt a really special place for us over the past year and I’m looking forward to continuing the journey.”

Chairman Jeff Shi said: “I think the club has a positive future, building a new cycle for growth, better results on the pitch and ambitions to realise.

“To prepare for that, we need a very good team and I think Gary is a key member of the team, maybe even the most important member, so we are very happy to have him here for the long term.

“He works very hard and is very humble. He might be the humblest manager I have ever worked with and one of the most hard-working coaches I’ve ever met. His strengths are around his tactics and his chemistry with the players.”

Wolves finished 14th last season after O’Neil, who previously managed Bournemouth, arrived on 9 August, days before the start of the 2023-24 season.

He will have to work without Pedro Neto for 2024-25 though, with the Portugal international close to a £54m move to Chelsea.

O’Neil said he, Shi and sporting director Matt Hobbs had “some bits to do in the transfer window” to make the squad “even better than it is this moment”.

“I know we’ve done some good stuff and the ones who’ve arrived have really helped us, but we still need to do a bit of work on juggling a few things around to make us balanced,” he said.