Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O’Neil has confirmed the club’s decision to appoint Nelson Semedo as captain in place of Mario Lemina.
Monday night’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham United left Wolves four points adrift of safety, earning O’Neil the unfortunate honour of a 10th Premier League defeat in just 15 outings.
An emotionally charged ending to the game saw Lemina clash with West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen, seemingly when the England international winger attempted to shake his hand after the full-time whistle. A fiery exchange followed, involving heated words and pushing and shoving, with Lemina unable to be talked down for several minutes.
Though no reference was made to the incident in O’Neil’s press conference before Wolves’ clash with Ipswich Town, the former Portsmouth and Tottenham midfielder confirmed the decision to hand Semedo the captaincy for the remainder of the season.
“The discussions with Mario were good. We get on very, very well,” O’Neil said. “He’s been a big part of what we’ve been able to do here, and we have a large amount of respect for each other. Sometimes you can come out of these discussions in a really good spot, and I think that we have.
“I have a lot of respect for Mario, and what he’s still going to be able to do for us. When we get the best out of him on the pitch his level is so high, and he’s still going to play a big part for us which he’s extremely keen to do. He’ll still be around the senior group that leads the team, but at this moment we feel it’s best for Nelson to lead the group.
“The most important thing is us getting the best out of everybody – getting the best out of Mario Lemina week in, week out, the same for Nelson and the rest of the group. We dealt with it earlier in the week and the focus since has been purely on Ipswich, Mario’s ready, Nelson’s ready and the rest of the players are ready.”
Wolves sit 19th in the table, level on points with Ipswich, and have lost their last three Premier League games in a row after previously picking up seven points from games against Southampton, Fulham and Crystal Palace.
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