Wolves’ striker hunt in doubt

The club were forced into a difficult summer full of sales to turn a big profit and adhere to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, with limited scope to make additions in January.

Wolves have still been prioritising signing a striker this month, however, with O’Neil keen to bolster his attacking options.

Now, after a meeting with the Wolves hierarchy on Tuesday, O’Neil has admitted the club’s ability to bring in top targets has worsened as they are priced out by parent clubs.

He said: “A lot of work was going into trying to recruit a certain type and it’s now been made clear financially that we can’t afford that type.

“So that search stops and we look at other options.

“If something comes up, which it might do, that I believe will improve us and can be done with the financial restraints we have, then we will. But at this moment, the ones we thought we could do, we can’t afford.”

O’Neil added: “The financial side of why, I’m not 100 per cent clear on. Financial fair play or the position of the club financially, but it’s just clear we still need to be very, very careful and even more careful than we thought when I spoke to you guys last week about the targets we were looking at.

“At this moment in time, they are not doable for us.

“We were looking at loans as well, but it’s January and a lot of the teams are looking for the same.

“Most of our players left on loan – it’s where the market is.

“Look at the numbers spent this window, it’s massively down on normal January transfer windows. There’s not been much done at all.

“All teams are looking for those sort of deals where you get a good player for not very much, and there’s not many of them about.

“We have a lot here, so I’m happy to keep them and work with them again if nothing comes up.”

The Premier League has seen a number of clubs break the rules and be hit with sanctions in recent months, with Everton’s 10-point deduction the most high-profile.

But O’Neil says Wolves have always been adamant they will not breach the regulations, regardless of the punishments handed down.

He said: “As a club, we were always very conscious of making sure we were not breaking rules.

“The punishments teams have faced or may face doesn’t really add to that, we’ve always known the rules are put in place for a reason and we’ve tried to stick to them.

“Our financial situation, and within the playing squad, is that we have a high level of player in the group which is why we’ve managed to do what we have so far.

“To add to that or improve and bring people in, they have to be of a certain level. Financially we can’t always do those at this moment in time.

“We’ll see what we can do over the next few days. Something may change, especially late in the window as sometimes things come up, but as it stands there’s nothing significant coming in at this moment.”