{"id":246265,"date":"2025-12-22T18:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/246265\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T18:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:33:10","slug":"martin-oneill-hits-out-at-matt-dohertys-wolves-comments-i-wouldnt-listen-to-a-word-matt-was-saying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/246265\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O\u2019Neill hits out at Matt Doherty\u2019s Wolves comments: \u2018I wouldn\u2019t listen to a word Matt was saying\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just two points from their opening 17 league games, Wolves are staring at relegation to the Championship unless their form turns around soon.<\/p>\n

Following their loss to Keith Andrews\u2019 Brentford last Saturday – their tenth straight defeat – Ireland defender Doherty (33) didn\u2019t hold back in his views<\/a> on how their campaign has gone so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we want to be remembered for fighting all the way to the end of season, or do we want to be remembered for being cowards and taking the easy option, maybe trying to leave in January, or not fighting and training, and letting other people take your position?\u201d said Doherty, as the defeat left Rob Edwards\u2019 side 16 points off safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out how we want to be remembered at the club. You can see the stadium is nearly empty at the end, it\u2019s not full at the start, but we\u2019re just lacking belief that we can actually win the games. We\u2019re afraid and scared to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

But O\u2019Neill, who had a fractious relationship with Doherty during their time together with the national team – with the player previously alleging he was called a \u2018tosser\u2019 <\/a>by the ex-Ireland boss when he left the job in 2018 – has hit out at the comments made by the Wolves man.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was the Wolves manager, I wouldn\u2019t listen to a word Matt was saying,\u201d said O\u2019Neill on TalkSport, who has returned to punditry following his successful eight-match caretaker stint at Celtic recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt is a brilliant talker, a really good talker, but he\u2019d want to do a bit more playing. Personally speaking, that\u2019s self-absolvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you do plenty of that as a player, generally speaking, there\u2019s not that much behind it all. Matt is a very good talker but wants to do more playing. You\u2019re a player who has picked up two points from 17 games, two points out of 51. That\u2019s not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt hasn\u2019t played all the games but he has been captain of the side. Take responsibility and genuinely do look in the mirror. Players can do a lot of talking but if you want to talk the talk, you must walk the walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doherty earned the first of his 53 caps under O\u2019Neill in March 2018, before the 73-year-old departed the Irish hot seat the following November.<\/p>\n

The Swords man started Ireland\u2019s opening World Cup qualifier against Hungary last September but was left on the bench for the defeat to Armenia three days later.<\/p>\n

He missed the October and November camps with a wrist injury that required surgery, and will be looking to reclaim his spot in Heimir Hallgrimsson\u2019s squad for the play-off semi-final away to Czechia in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just two points from their opening 17 league games, Wolves are staring at relegation to the Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,2723,132,92470],"class_list":{"0":"post-246265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-sean-oconnor","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wolverhampton-wanderers-football-club"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115764658406953487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}