REPORT:Gary O’Neil and Julen Lopetegui for the first time tonight

Gary O’Neil and Julen Lopetegui will do battle for the first time tonight as Wolves take on West Ham United at the London Stadium

The game is being billed as ‘El Sackico’, with the feeling being that whichever manager loses the game will lose his job.

Wolves have had an atrocious season so far. Everyone understood Wolves had a difficult start in terms of the fixtures, but results haven’t really picked up in recent weeks.

Wolves did go four unbeaten recently, but big defeats to Bournemouth and Everton have put O’Neil on the brink.

It just hasn’t been good enough defensively this season, and many have pointed to the failure to sign a replacement for Max Kilman as a major reason why Wolves are where they are in the table.

Wolves’ pool of defenders has certainly been much stronger in the past – and one man who’s really starting to impress away from Molineux now is Nathan Collins.

Nathan Collins is shining for Brentford after leaving Wolves

In the summer of 2023, Wolves sold a number of players in order to help alleviate the financial pressure they were under.

Nathan Collins, who had only signed from Burnley one year before, was one of those players who left.