Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Gary O'Neil has already begun his planning for next season, and has made a decision on the future of one of his players this summer according to a recent report.
O'Neil a contender for manager of the year
Given where he started, O'Neil must be a contender for the best Premier League boss this season. The Englishman arrived just days before the new season began and had no money to spend on the squad, yet has transformed Wolves from tipped relegation fodder to a midtable side still in with an outside chance of European football next season.
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All that has happened against a backdrop of injuries, with his forwards dropping like flies. As it stands, both Pedro Neto and Hwang Hee-Chan are sidelined, with the former having only managed 18 starts this season after a pair of hamstring problems and the latter 19 thanks to injuries and international commitments.
O'Neil lamented the failure to bring in a striker in January after being forced to hand a debut to 18-year-old Leon Chiwome in a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa. "I was clear with them that we were overloading the players and I felt our injury record had a really good chance of getting worse during the second half of the season", the Wolves boss explained.
"Unfortunately, the club were not in a position to be able to help us with that due to financial reasons. We had a Premier League number nine lined up to come in and help us and a fairly small amount of money stopped us doing it."
Despite this, his side have already surpassed Wolves' points tally from last season, and still have a chance of scraping a UEFA Conference League spot with a strong finish to the campaign. It hasn't been all rosy at Molineux for everyone though.
O'Neil ready to sell loanee for good
Now, it has emerged that O'Neil is ready to accept a massive loss and cash in on unwanted striker Fabio Silva this summer amid interest from Rangers. The Portuguese attacker arrived from FC Porto for £35m but has never really looked at home in the Premier League and has spent parts of the last two seasons on loan with clubs around Europe.
He has found success with Rangers, who he joined in January. So far, the striker has scored twice in 10 Scottish Premiership appearances and could yet help them lift the Scottish Premiership title.
Now, Football Insider report that Wolves are willing to take a 'huge' loss on the attacker to see him leave permanently, with the manager deciding the youngster is simply not part of his plans. It had previously been thought that Rangers would not be able to afford the fee demanded by Wolves for the striker on top of the £40,000 per week wages that they are already covering during his loan from Molineux.
Rangers' record signings
Player
Left
Year
Fee
Tore Andre Flo
Chelsea
2000
£15m
Michael Ball
Everton
2001
£8.3m
Mikel Arteta
Barcelona
2002
£6.8m
Arthur Numan
PSV
1998
£6.5m
Giovanni Van Bronckhorst
Feyenoord
1998
£6.3m
Barry Ferguson
Blakburn Rovers
2004
£6m
But, with the latest information claiming that 'O’Neil has now decided that the youngster does not have a place in his squad going forward', he may be happy to generate any funds at all as he looks to rebuild his squad.
