Mario Lemina believes there is something quite rare about Wolves manager Gary O’Neil, having now worked with him for eight months.
It has been a great season for Wanderers against the odds, with Wolves currently sitting in 11th place in the Premier League table.
He has already acquired two more points than what was managed in the whole of last season, with five games still left to play.
O’Neil has done so many things already at Molineux. He’s masterminded some brilliant results, and got the fans believing again.
One of the most underrated aspects of the job O’Neil has done is the way he has restored belief in the dressing room – and Mario Lemina has been talking up Gary O’Neil the person…
Mario Lemina says Wolves manager Gary O’Neil is a rare breed of football manager
In the second half of the season, O’Neil has started to come in for a lot more praise from pundits for the job he has been doing.
And we have also started to have reports of interest from other clubs in the 40-year-old.
Yesterday, it was surprisingly claimed that Liverpool were interested, although O’Neil denied that he had been in contact with the Reds.
Previously, it has been suggested that Manchester United and West Ham United have both been keen.
But hopefully, O’Neil is going to be sticking around at Molineux for some time, with the players certainly big fans of him.
Mario Lemina has been speaking about O’Neil, and believes that people like him are not very common in the game today. He told the club’s official website: “It’s been really good. He’s a really good manager, but he’s a really good human being as well. It’s not often that you find this kind of person in this job and in the football industry. It’s just the beginning of his journey with us and it’s only going to get even better.
“We still have work to do and we’re improving every day, he’s improving every day, and I hope next year is going to be even better.”
These comments follow Nelson Semedo recently saying that O’Neil was an ‘easy’ manager to play under.
O’Neil has the right blend
Lemina has had a lot of managers throughout his career, and it’s great to hear him talking like this about O’Neil.
It has been clear to see that O’Neil is not just a good tactician. You can tell by the togetherness we see on matchdays that he has built up a respect in the dressing room, and he is clearly very likable among the players.
It is so important for managers to have a good relationship with their players, and it sounds very much as though O’Neil is a popular figure behind the scenes.