Wolverhampton Wanderers are currently looking for their next head coach after Vitor Pereira was removed from his post after no wins from the first ten matches of the Premier League season.

John Percy reports that Gary O'Neil, sacked by the club in the 2024/25 campaign, is now in advanced talks to take the job for a second time.

The English tactician was sacked by Wolves after losing 11 of the opening 16 games of last season, but may now be brought in to save the Old Gold from their current position.

Instead of going back to O'Neil, who had the team in relegation form before he left last term, the club should look to another manager on their shortlist.

Wolves identify former Championship manager as target

The former Bournemouth boss is not the only head coach who has been linked with a move to Molineux since Pereira was moved on from his position.

According to The Athletic, O'Neil is one of three managers in the frame to land the permanent job, alongside Middlesbrough boss Rob Edwards and Michael Carrick.

The report claims that all three of them are under consideration, as part of the club's shortlist, but it did add that they would have to pay compensation to land Edwards.

Carrick is, therefore, the most interesting option on the list as an alternative to O'Neil, because he could be a dream option for Wolves for several reasons.

Why Wolves should appoint Carrick

The English boss, who was hailed as an "insanely talented coach" by former Boro player Lukas Engel, has stepped in to turn a poor start to a season around before.

He arrived at Boro in October 2022 after they won two of their first 11 Championship matches and led them to a fourth-place finish with 18 wins in 30 games, per Transfermarkt, which shows that he can inspire a group to turn their form around.

That suggests that he has a chance of being the source of inspiration that Wolves need to have any chance of avoiding relegation, with the team currently rock bottom of the division.

On top of that, Carrick, who was coy when asked about the Wolves vacancy on Match of the Day, is a proven Championship manager who can coach his side to play exciting football.

As much as supporters will not want to hear it at this stage of the season, it is worth thinking about how the next managerial appointment will fare if they take the team down, given the situation that they are going to inherit.

As you can see in the table above, Carrick's coaching essentially delivered successive play-off level performances in the Championship, on top of actually finishing in the play-offs in his first season, but it was not rewarded by the output from his players.

The xGD numbers show that his Boro team consistently created more high-quality chances than the opposition, which tends to be a sign of a well-coached side.

Whereas, as shown in the post above from when he was linked to Norwich, O'Neil's Bournemouth and Wolves teams, albeit at Premier League level, consistently conceded more chances than they created.

Therefore, Carrick, who is currently a free agent, would be a dream alternative to O'Neil because of the short and long-term impact that he could have.