Is Wolves' Gary O'Neil about to pull off one of the most unlikely managerial recoveries?

Gary O’Neil is some way off from being able to declare himself safe in a job, but in the space of two Premier League games, the Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach has put himself in a position to pull off one of the most unlikely managerial turnarounds in the competition’s history. Life can certainly change quickly.

When Wolves hosted Southampton before the most recent international break, O’Neil appeared to be on borrowed time. Had Wolves not collected their first win of the season against Russell Martin’s side, a managerial change may have been unavoidable.

But even after that 2-0 victory on November 9, conversations took place behind the scenes about possible alternatives to O’Neil, so important were the fixtures that were to come regarded. In the end, Wolves decided to keep the faith and after another three points, collected in an emphatic 4-1 win on the road at Fulham, the outlook is beginning to shift for a manager whose team are now a point above the relegation zone.

The back-to-back 2-2 draws against Brighton and Crystal Palace that preceded the Southampton victory now look like the foundations for a solid four-match unbeaten run and O’Neil has the chance to pull off quite the act of escapology.

Before beating Southampton, Wolves had claimed just one win in their previous 20 Premier League games. That came against a Luton Town side that were relegated last season. Managers almost never recover from such a sequence of results.

With five important fixtures to follow, starting with Saturday’s Molineux meeting with his former club Bournemouth, O’Neil is not out of the woods yet. But the fixtures look, on paper at least, more inviting than the brutal spell at the start of the season, which saw Wolves play Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in their opening seven league games. They do not play a team currently in the top half of the table until Tottenham Hotspur on December 29.

Statistically, the worst managerial winless runs in Premier League history include a sequence of one win in 33 games for Paul Jewell, one in 30 for Mick McCarthy and one in 26 for Bryan Robson.

For Jewell and Robson, those results spanned spells at two clubs — Wigan Athletic and Derby County for Jewell, Middlesbrough and West Brom for Robson — while McCarthy’s run encompassed parts of two seasons with Sunderland that were interrupted by two campaigns outside of the top flight.

The following table includes only consecutive Premier League games with the same club, but does include instances, as in O’Neil’s case, where the winless run spans two consecutive Premier League seasons with the same club.

Of those who endured similar runs, only Aidy Boothroyd and Graham Taylor remained in their jobs for more than a year following the end of the sequence. Both were at Watford.

Chris Wilder endured two horrible runs in two separate spells at Sheffield United and he remains in post six months on from the end of the most recent one, albeit in the Championship.

The data underlines the scale of the challenge for managers to fully recover their reputation and reclaim the faith of supporters and employers after such a difficult period. But O’Neil has, generally, retained the faith of the Wolves hierarchy.

While they did consider their options in recent weeks, there was also a genuine desire to keep a manager who they believe is a rising star in the coaching world. Whether O’Neil can fully win over the most sceptical sections of the fanbase remains to be seen, but more victories in the coming weeks would help.

Saturday’s Matheus Cunha-inspired victory in west London was the latest show of unity between O’Neil and his players and the Wolves boss bristled slightly at a suggestion from a reporter during the post-match press conference that such a demonstration of togetherness was even required.

“I don’t even think it’s really a question,” he said. “We’re always going to work and give everything and, of course, results can go against us and, someday, I’m sure I’ll be moved on, but it definitely won’t be through losing the players.”

Saturday’s victory was, O’Neil said, among his most satisfying as a coach given the adversity Wolves had to overcome to achieve it.

There was the natural pressure that came with their perilous position in the table, compounded by the absence of three of their four senior central defenders — Yerson Mosquera is out for the season through injury, Santiago Bueno a more minor muscle strain, and Craig Dawson due to illness.

The January imperative to add an extra centre-back was thrown into sharp focus, but captain Mario Lemina coped manfully as an emergency stand-in alongside Toti Gomes.

With Cunha and Joao Gomes inspiring the side further forward, the afternoon carried echoes of some of the memorable away games in O’Neil’s impressive first season in charge. It did not have the same level of dominance as in the stand-out victories at Tottenham and Chelsea that campaign, but it did contain similar levels of resilience and the same kind of outstanding goals and individual displays.

And with Fulham ending the game with 10 players due to an injury to Joachim Andersen when they had no more substitutions available, there was a sense that Wolves’ luck might have changed, too.

O’Neil will be taking nothing for granted yet, but if the next couple of weeks go well, he might be able to reflect on one of the greatest managerial turnarounds of all time.

(Top photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)