Saturday might not have been the day Gary O’Neil ran out of road as Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach, but it was the day he ran out of credit.
The same applies to Fosun, the club’s increasingly indifferent owners, and several of O’Neil’s senior players.
Saturday was the day the conversation changed.
Until the trip to Brentford, even a run of one point from six league games at the start of this season and one win from 16 dating back to the last campaign was not enough to earn O’Neil vocal criticism from match-going Wolves fans, such was the level of goodwill that he carried over from the fine job he pulled off previously.
For Fosun, memories of promotion, top-half Premier League finishes, an FA Cup semi-final and the last eight of the Europa League were enough to insulate the ownership from the angriest impulses of supporters.
Not anymore. Saturday brought a 5-3 defeat at Brentford with a scoreline that flattered Wolves and a performance that turned the tide of public opinion.
From now on, any credit the owners or the manager get will need to be earned afresh. Wolves fans have had enough — and on Saturday they made their feelings known.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” rang out to a backing track of boos as O’Neil introduced Hwang Hee-chan as his first substitute at the Gtech Community Stadium.
There were further boos later, especially at the final whistle and choruses of “we want Fosun out”.
There seems little immediate prospect of O’Neil being replaced. The Molineux hierarchy are mindful of the difficulty of Wolves’ opening fixtures and of the job O’Neil did last season in picking up the pieces after Julen Lopetegui’s pre-season walk-out and turning Wolves into a side that never looked threatened by relegation.
A change now would be costly given he and his backroom staff signed new, long-term contracts just a few months ago.
But Saturday’s shambolic defensive display in west London ensured the pivotal sequence of games in November and December that already looked critical will now be make-or-break for O’Neil.
Wolves players after Saturday’s defeat (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Wolves are desperate to back a man they still believe possesses the energy and tactical nous that helped him make Wolves into contenders for Europe against the odds for a chunk of last season.
But while boardroom patience appears to be on his side for now, it cannot and will not last indefinitely, as O’Neil tacitly conceded after watching his team’s defensive and tactical implosion.
“Being a football manager means that you definitely have today, and after that, so many things can happen,” he told his post-match press conference.
“Today I gave my best to try to help the football club have a successful day and it was miles below the standard we expect. Tomorrow I’ll get up and I’ll do the same.
“Then at some point, someone will tell me to stop.”
O’Neil had the air of a man who is beginning to fear the worst, and a glance at the fixture list will tell him things might get worse before they have a chance of getting better.
A home meeting with champions Manchester City and a trip to Brighton provide two daunting assignments after the international break before some marginally more inviting matches between the start of November and Christmas.
So there are games in the medium-term that give O’Neil a chance to build bridges with supporters, but losing the faith of away fans — typically the most loyal and patient section of the fanbase — tends to make that task harder.
O’Neil deserves a chance to replicate last season’s managerial feats away from a brutal opening run of games but he will know that the pressure on Wolves to act might become irresistible should that crucial pre-Christmas period not start well.
If fans’ patience with the manager has snapped then so too has their tolerance with some of his players.
Rayan Ait-Nouri — one of the stars of O’Neil’s first season — turned tail and headed down the tunnel with a dismissive gesture towards fans after Saturday’s game when they reacted angrily to his valiant efforts to applaud them.
Several key players including captain Mario Lemina, midfield partner Joao Gomes, full-back Nelson Semedo and even current leading scorer Matheus Cunha have yet to find their best form this season.
Hwang has become the lightning rod for much of the frustration with his performance levels some way below last season.
Hwang Hee-chan has received criticism from supporters (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
“They are disappointed with us — it’s not about Hee-chan and I understand that,” Lemina told reporters after Saturday’s game.
“We haven’t put three points on the board and they need to find some targets, but there are no targets.
“As a team, we are not giving them what they want and they have to be angry and show that they are angry as well. We need to be better.
“And if we say Gary O’Neil is the problem then we are liars and cheaters.
“He has given us a lot since he came. Now we have to give it back to him and at the moment we are not giving it back.”
As for Fosun, the glorious memories of their early years are now too distant to prevent mounting criticism.
Clumsy comments from executive chairman Jeff Shi, most recently in an interview with The Telegraph, have created the impression that brand-building overseas takes priority over team-building in the West Midlands.
The owners’ failure to deliver stadium improvements while making net transfer profits and hiking season ticket prices have created a huge disconnect between Shi’s rhetoric and match-going fans’ experience.
The Chinese conglomerate will find goodwill even harder to rebuild than O’Neil because the frustrations with their stewardship are more deep-rooted.
“It’s a normal time like in any season,” Shi told the Telegraph. “And from our point of view, this is all going to plan and we must not deviate.”
There is a growing number of Wolves supporters who cannot buy into the plan either on the pitch or off it.
And right now, the calls to “deviate” are increasing by the week.
(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
