Gary O'Neil not talking about the 'E' word...yet
Gary O'Neil is refusing to entertain talk of a charge for European football after Wolves' perfect run of festive results.
Consecutive wins over Chelsea, Brentford and Everton have put Wolves on 28 points from 20 games and within touching distance of the European places.
But O'Neil, who was tasked with keeping Wolves in the league when he took over in August, says the club's targets are not changing yet.
"Not yet, they're still the same," O'Neil said when asked when his goals will change this campaign.
"I'm really hopeful, with the plan the club has, that next season will look a little different for us financially.
"This year was really important to consolidate and that's still the task, so this year lets make sure we achieve our minimal goal and then we'll keep pushing to finish as high as we can.
"The target I was set when I came in was to keep the group in the league without too much help from the transfer markets and then my aim for the group is to push them as high as I can. The lads deserve me to push them."
In their positive run and impressive season so far, the team and many individual players have made significant progression under O'Neil.
The head coach says many of the players have big ambitions this season, but O'Neil is keen to take it game by game with 18 left to play.
"I'm really keen to make sure all of the credit goes towards the playing group," O'Neil added.
"It's not me. They have to step over the line and produce.
"I can ask them to do stuff but they're the ones that have to go and carry it out.
"To add to that, we're somewhere between £80million to £100million better off than we were this time last year, so the club have managed to do some really good business with some of the players that weren't recognised at the time.
"What Toti Gomes is doing in the Premier League at the moment, for the money the club spent on him, is incredible.
"Joao Gomes, for a young player to be performing the way he is, is incredible.
"Channy scored nine goals in his last four seasons and he's on 10 this year.
"The work that the lads have put in to improve is why we've managed to do what we've done so far, but we haven't achieved anything, we're 20 games into a 38 game season.
"They're an ambitious group. If you ask the playing staff where they think we can finish this year, it will be high up. We'll keep try pushing them."
