Managers rise and managers fall and often there isn’t much reason for it. It was only a year ago that Gary O’Neil seemed one of the brightest young managers in the Premier League, but by December it was over. This is how football is: when a blip becomes a slump becomes a spiral, the only solution is the sacrifice of the manager. It often works: Wolves have improved dramatically under Vítor Pereira and, while they may not yet be mathematically safe from relegation, they surely soon will be.
The life of man, the folk carol reminds us, is but a span; the life of a manager is even shorter (but a spanager?). O’Neil had replaced Scott Parker at Bournemouth four games into 2022-23, after their 9-0 defeat by Liverpool, and had kept them up comfortably, only to be jettisoned for Andoni Iraola. He took over Wolves less than a week before last season began and had them in the top half in March.
