According to rumours, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil has even been interviewed for the position, making him one of the potential candidates to take over at Liverpool.
Arne Slot is now the bookmakers’ favourite, with Xabi Alonso and Julian Nagelsmann ruled out and Ruben Amorim unlikely.
The search for a new manager at Liverpool is turning out to be more difficult than fans and possibly even club officials had anticipated.
It’s now been reported—not to be mentioned, through the regular sources—that O’Neill, the manager of Wolves, has been questioned about taking over for Jurgen Klopp.
This occurs during a challenging season for Wolves, as he has guided his team to 11th place despite a debilitating injury situation the entire time.
Before that, O’Neil established a solid reputation for himself at Bournemouth, where he first filled the role of temporary manager before being promoted to regular manager.
Prior to that, he gained experience as a coach with Liverpool U21s, rising to the position of assistant manager under Barry Lewtas at the beginning of 2020–21.
Although O’Neil was only on Merseyside for six months before moving to Middlesbrough to work in Jonathan Woodgate’s backroom, he has stronger ties to Liverpool.
The main source of conjecture around O’Neil’s potential candidature for the Anfield position has been his relationships with those outside of the game.
O’Neill was one of the people who grew close to Michael Edwards in his capacity as an analyst for Harry Redknapp’s side. Edwards was a former Portsmouth teammate of Richard Hughes.
Edwards, who was formerly employed at Portsmouth, is back in his capacity as CEO of Football for the Fenway Sports Group. He has already appointed Hughes as sporting director and brought back David Woodfine as assistant sporting director.
They will be in charge of hiring Klopp’s replacement, which would at least clarify the connections to O’Neil.
It’s uncertain if the rumours of an interview to replace manager of Liverpool are true, but there is evidence that Edwards has a tendency to bring in people he knows and trusts.
It should be mentioned that Hughes oversaw O’Neil’s contentious firing from Bournemouth in 2023 while serving as the team’s technical director. However, the owners of the team are said to have made that choice.
The claim made by David Ornstein of The Athletic that Anfield’s higher-ups are willing to choose “brave over popular” when it comes to their selection may cause some anxiety regarding the Wolves manager’s summer arrival.
On that front, only time will tell, but there’s a hunch that a lot of these claims are just a smokescreen before the actual hire.
