Gary O’Neil painted a bleak picture of the situation at Wolves and admitted “no magic wand” will fix their problems after a 3-2 loss at Ipswich in the Carabao Cup third round.
Wolves slumped to a fifth defeat in eight matches under the former Bournemouth manager, who only took over on August 9 following the departure of Julen Lopetegui by mutual consent.
O’Neil made 10 changes for the Portman Road clash and despite taking a 2-0 lead via goals by Hwang Hee-chan and Toti, the Premier League outfit were on the end of an upset after Championship high-flyers Ipswich responded through Omari Hutchinson, Freddie Ladapo and Jack Taylor.
Asked for a message to disgruntled Wolves supporters, O’Neil insisted: “To stick with the group.
“We are six weeks into a process and there is no magic wand. I can guarantee you when I arrived the place was not running perfectly and ready to go into a Premier League season.
“There are a lot of things that need fixing and of course I am willing to take responsibility, but the facts are you need some time to put things in place. That does not look like a team that I have worked with for very long at this moment, which it isn’t.
“Do I accept that we need to get results? Of course. Do I want the fans to enjoy every game we play and come away and support the players? Of course and we will work tirelessly to make sure we get it there and we will get it there.
But there is no transfer window. The transfer window is closed and we are together as we are and need to get the maximum out of the group.
“We’ve named a strong team with 11 players that should be capable of winning here and we don’t, so it is my responsibility to make sure we get some more out of them.”
Life does not get any easier for Wolves with Manchester City set to visit on Saturday and it will be a return to Molineux for Matheus Nunes, who left in a £53million deal last month.
O’Neil pointed out the club’s net spend this summer when asked to reflect on the issues at the Midlands outfit.
“I think when I arrived the culture of the club needed a shift and some of it needs to move towards more togetherness,” O’Neil admitted.
