Lopetegui set to leave Wolves with ‘termination’ talks ongoing; ex-PL boss is ‘favourite’ to replace him

Lopetegui leaving Wolves Credit: Alamy

Julen Lopetegui is reportedly set to leave Wolves as he is currently ‘in negotiations’ with the Premier League club over a contract ‘termination’.

The respected coach joined Wolves last November to replace Bruno Lage. Lopetegui won ten of his 27 games in charge of Wolves last season as he successfully guided them to safety in the Premier League.

The former Spain and Real Madrid boss has been left frustrated by Wolves’ limited activity in the transfer market this summer.

They have not done much business even with them earning around £90m through selling Ruben Neves, Nathan Collins, Raul Jimenez and Conor Coady.

TalkSPORT are now reporting that ‘Lopetegui is in negotiations with Wolves over terminating his contract’.

Former AFC Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil is in line to replace Lopetegui as he is ‘the favourite to take over from the Spaniard’.

Sky Sports later added: “Wolves are currently in talks with Julen Lopetegui with regard to mutually terminating his contract.

“Former Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil is a candidate Wolves are keen to speak to about taking over from Lopetegui, who joined Wolves in November 2022 when the club were bottom of the Premier League.

“Lopetegui has criticised the club’s lack of spending during this summer’s window and has cut a frustrated figure over the last few weeks as he looks to build on their 13th place finish last season.”

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Earlier this summer, Lopetegui indicated to Spanish journalist Guillem Balague that Wolves struggling to match his ambitions.

“Unfortunately we have this situation. I am not a financial adviser of course but I am a coach and I know we need to be competitive in the Premier League,” Lopetegui said.

“I hope that we are going to improve this situation because we need that. The players that are here, they’re committed but of course all of the rest is true.

“Unfortunately, the situation was reality, it was bad news for me of course.

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“I’m trying in the summer; this is the plan A that we have and after that we have to adapt to the situation to the plan B, trying to think about the players that are cost effective signings in this situation.

“It is true that in this moment, we can’t develop the plan B either. We lost a lot of players, and it is true that we think the club want to sell more players.

“This situation, we need players to balance the squad and be competitive in the Premier League for sure.”

READ MORE: Premier League sack race… Lopetegui clear favourite amid reports he might not even start season

The article Lopetegui set to leave Wolves with ‘termination’ talks ongoing; ex-PL boss is ‘favourite’ to replace him appeared first on Football365.com.