Gary O’Neil can make Liverpool target Pedro Neto his first signing after replacing Jurgen Klopp in 2026

Pedro Neto is a class act but if he can hold off on moving to Liverpool then Gary O’Neil can take him with him in 2026. The Wolves boss got the better of Roberto De Zerbi on Monday and has a very bright future.

Speaking over the top of a VT of Matheus Cunha and Max Kilman eating their pre-match meal wearing a product Gary Neville might question the market for on Dragon’s Den, managerial innovator Gary O’Neil explained Wolves’ decision to make ‘daylight glasses’ part of their preparation.

“Especially in the winter months, our medical team and the guys that work on the fitness side recommended these ‘daylight glasses’, especially for evening games the boys get them on because they tell me the body can start to think it’s time to get tired when the sun goes down.”

It brings Sir Dave Brailsford’s ‘one per cent’ philosophy to mind, though we doubt Robocop spectacles shining light in players’ eyes would have even that much influence. But it’s at worst an immeasurable nonsense, so what’s the harm? It adds to the growing appreciation of O’Neil as something of a surprise trailblazer and deep-thinker.

It’s taken time to train the brain to appreciate O’Neil. He was a workhorse central midfielder who had a solid but unspectacular career, as he admitted in his message to the Wolves players after their win over Tottenham. “I couldn’t have done that lads, I wasn’t good enough,” he said.

Unreasonably, we expected his teams to play like him, fighting for everything, getting in opposition faces, hoping for breaks of the ball, making up for a difference in quality through hard work and determination.

O’Neil’s Wolves side have those qualities, but are also coached to be brave on the ball, with patterns of play drilled into them in possession as well as out of it – something we can’t imagine him being exposed to a great deal while playing under Sam Allardyce at West Ham or Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth, who we’re guessing were fully signed up members of the ‘just express yourselves’ school of attacking instruction.

Just as Brighton have a very clearly defined style under Roberto De Zerbi, the same can be said for Wolves under O’Neil, who places a heavy emphasis on central combinations and transitional attacks, with the No.10 spaces becoming an important element under his stewardship.

They should have left the Amex with all three points. Entirely comfortable with Brighton having 71 per cent possession and the run of the game, Wolves set traps in midfield that were fallen into by the hosts, who failed to create anything much of note in the final third, left themselves open to the break and should have been punished.

O’Neil said after the game that he recognised that his side would be open to a Brighton threat because of how “aggressive” he had asked them to be, but believed it was “a risk worth taking” to leave Cunha and Pedro Neto on halfway to create their own problems. It was really effective, in the second half particularly.

Six times Pedro Neto faced up a Brighton defender from the right flank and six times he got the better of them before his crosses were either cut out, fluffed by teammates or played into an area a teammate should have been.

On his first start since October, Neto won the Man of the Match award for being the most consistent menace on either team, and he will prove to be the ace in the hole for O’Neil for the remainder of the season, so long as Wolves manage to keep prying big club eyes at bay.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have all been credited with interest in the Portugal international, who may just have returned to the Wolves side at the wrong time for O’Neil with nine days remaining in the January transfer window.

He’s good enough to be playing for one of those top sides, but as has been the case for many of the Brighton players who have left De Zerbi for sunnier (or more well-paid climes), Neto should perhaps think twice before emerging from under the wing of a manager who is getting the best out of him, his teammates and the team as a whole.

You never know, O’Neil could be managing one of those big boys before long. Jurgen Klopp’s out of contract in 2026.