Gary O’Neil: Building Belief and Ambition at the Club
Gary O’Neil talks like a man who can feel a club starting to swell with belief.
Injury problems? Yes. Doubts? A few. But as he looked ahead to Sunday, the head coach sounded far more energised by what is coming than weighed down by what is missing.
Florentino Luis is edging closer. O’Neil revealed the midfielder is “improving well” and could be “back around it” for the weekend, though he still has work to do. The rest of the bulletin was less encouraging. Azor Matusiwa remains sidelined, Jack Taylor is still out and Jaden Philogene will not make the game either. Any optimism on that front, O’Neil suggested, will have to wait at least another week.
The absentees, though, sit in sharp contrast to the mood he sees every day.
“We’re in a good place,” he stressed, describing it as a “fantastic summer for the club” and urging supporters to carry that sense of excitement with them for as long as possible.
Palacios set for first glimpse
The clearest symbol of that excitement is Exequiel Palacios. The new signing, decorated at club and international level, is expected to be involved on Sunday.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll see him,” O’Neil said, calling the midfielder “a talented boy” and “an incredible signing by the football club.”
His arrival feels like the payoff for months of graft behind the scenes. O’Neil spoke of the collective effort “all summer” to sell players on the project and the vision being built. You can “feel the belief around the place,” he said, “constantly growing and constantly improving.”
That belief has been underpinned by a clear show of ambition in the market.
Ambition on show
O’Neil did not hide his admiration for the backing he has received. The club have landed proven Premier League experience in Issa Diop and Sasa Lukic, along with talent from further afield, and the manager sees that as a statement.
“The ambition that this place has, the support that they give coaches and the direction of travel,” he said, made it an opportunity he wanted to seize as soon as it appeared. He described himself as “really grateful for the owners’ backing” and underlined their commitment to making the club “as special as they can.”
The message is clear: this is not a squad being patched together; it is being built with intent.
Abraham talk on hold – but business not done
One name dominated the questions, even if it did not dominate O’Neil’s answers. With a loan deal reportedly agreed for Aston Villa striker Tammy Abraham, the manager batted away any suggestion that a move is imminent from his perspective.
“No update, as far as I am aware,” he said, even joking that the rumours sounded “further along” in the media than in his own briefings. “Nothing to report on that.”
What he did make clear is that the window remains open in his mind as well as on the calendar. The club are “hopefully not finished” and are “still working hard to try to improve the group.”
Injuries may shape his team sheet on Sunday. The transfer work of the summer, and possibly the days ahead, will shape something far bigger.
