GARY O’Neil insists he is not on a revenge mission with Wolves this evening when he faces his former club Cherries at Molineux (7.45pm).

Cherries controversially opted to replace O’Neil with Andoni Iraola as head coach last summer.

O’Neil quickly got another Premier League job, taking over from Julen Lopetegui at Wolves and has guided them safely into mid-table, one point above Cherries.

Asked if getting one over his former employers, as he did at Vitality Stadium in October, was on his mind, O’Neil said: “Not at all. Absolutely zero. I’m really pleased that they’re doing well.

“I think the whole football club has progressed fantastically well.

“If you look at net spend, I think they’re the fifth highest spenders in the league in the last two windows.

“The whole football club has made a real good effort to push forward.

“When you couple all the players they’ve been able to sign in the last two windows plus the ones we signed in my January window, that weren’t really available to help me.

“(Illia) Zabarnyi was out with a broken ankle for the whole season when we signed him. Antoine (Semenyo) had a fracture in his shin.

“They’ve both gone on this season to be fantastic signings for the football club, both been in incredible form.

“Bournemouth have every right, with the players they have and the money they’ve spent, to be high up the Premier League and they’re going very well.

“We’re in similar positions in the league, but it’s a different situation here. We’re trying to make the best of ours and I’m fully focused on our own situation.”

Pushed further on being keen to impress against his former club, O’Neil added: “If you did that in football, you’d be constantly competing with teams and people you’ve left behind for one reason or another. You move on all the time. It’s the way the game is.

“I had an opportunity at Bournemouth that I enjoyed.

“A tough opportunity. People probably see Bournemouth as giving me my first shot at it, but there are a lot of other factors involved in that as well. I was given an incredibly difficult task.

“The team had just lost 16-0 on aggregate over three games and I was thrown in to take Premier League games having never taken a game before at any level, apart from my son’s under-9s.

“So I was thrown in with an opportunity, but with a tough opportunity and I managed to make a decent go of it, hence my opportunity at a big club like Wolves.

“So far we’ve managed to do okay this season. We’ve had our bumps along the road, as you always do, but 43 points with five games to go is a satisfactory return and hopefully we can add some more.”

One of the key factors behind bringing Iraola to the club regarded the style of football he had implemented in his previous job at Rayo Vallecano.

Asked if he felt he could have brought that style Cherries wanted, given the work he has done at Wolves, O’Neil replied: “Without trying to sound rude, answering that question just opens me up to saying they shouldn’t have got rid of me, which I’m not interested in at all.

“If they thought it was the right decision to get rid of me, I’m pleased they got what they wanted and I’m pleased that Andoni is doing a great job.

“My style will constantly evolve. When I was at Bournemouth, I had been a manager for five minutes and now I’ve been a manager for a lot longer.

“I’m always learning and improving and try to fit the style to the playing group I have.

“Bournemouth’s playing group now is very, very different and their style is different.

“They’re incredibly direct. They play long an awful lot.

“They are comfortable with the opposition having the ball, because they just want to press. So it’s very, very different to how we do things.

“But they’ve been successful with it. There’s no one way to do things and Bournemouth are doing very well with the way that they do it at the moment.”

Bournemouth Echo:

Quizzed on how he sees the game going this evening, O’Neil said: “I think it will be high energy. They test the back-line a lot. They play very long from centre-backs.

“They look for (Dominic) Solanke in behind, are not overly intricate in their play with long possession phases.

“Just a team that are willing to risk the ball and put it forward and then either get in behind and press you very highly.

“They’re in a good spot, have got fantastic players and have recruited very well. In the last two windows and the January before that, I think the recruitment has been excellent.

“I think of the impact some of them have had – (Milos) Kerkez, Zabarnyi, Semenyo, (Justin) Kluivert, (Alex) Scott. Tyler Adams hasn’t played a massive part, but is a fantastic signing. (Luis) Sinisterra.

“They’ve signed an awful lot of very good players, so they’re a good side and have a good coach, so it will be a big test for us.

“They’re in a better moment than we are squad wise.”