Wolves manager Kenny Jackett spoke a few weeks ago about how this could be the best time to be a young player at Wolves as all the club's youth will be given a chance to get into the first team squad.So far in the five friendlies played---Unbeaten----he's been as good as his word by giving all the young Wolves cubs a decent run out...There are eleven home produced players in the squad of twenty six with a further five bought for the future.The future,it seems,has arrived sooner than anyone envisaged...
No matter which team you support every fan wants to see their own players come through the ranks to hold down a first team place and become a star,inevitably to be sold to a bigger richer club.It's almost a badge of honour.There could be a few games in the coming season where nine or ten of the team are home produced...
This is not a situation borne out of long term forward thinking by the club however,it's one borne out of necessity.Double relegation has forced us to cut back drastically on wages and get rid of the high earners at Wolves.Normally having to ditch your "star" players is the death knell for a club but as these so called "stars" are directly responsible for us dropping like a stone these last two years all Wolves fans are happy to see them go as soon as possible...So not being able to afford,or attract,the type of players needed to revive the clubs fortunes we've looked inward to our own...
We have a saying in Britain "Every cloud has a silver lining" The darkest of clouds that's hung over Molineux these last two seasons could indeed have the brightest of silver linings in the shape of new boss KJ given carte blanche to fill his team with young vibrant ambitious players,many of whom come from our own youth academy.I am already getting excited for the future of Wolves.Hopefully all those that run the club have learnt valuable lessons these last few years...
Arguably if we had stayed up last season the young players would never have got their chance and many would have drifted off without ever getting close to Wolves first team.But now they are in a position to make the most of their situation.There will be those that fail of course and will need to be replaced but also there will be players who come through that will become legends at Wolves...At least they're being given a fair crack of the whip.Now it's up to them...
Some have been expected to sparkle for a long time.Players like Danny Batth and Zeli Ismail have been receiving rave reviews for a while now.Ismail was once described by a former youth coach as potentially the first £100M footballer.Talk about putting undue pressure on one so young! If Batth continues his progress then i can see him as a future captain of Wolves...
There will also be players that come through who are virtually unknown even by Wolves fans.Jack Price has been doing well in the pre-season games apparently.A month ago you'd be hard pressed to find a Wolves fan who'd heard of him...
Another potential happy outcome of giving youth it's head will be the ability of the club to attract better youth players to the club.If we become known as a club that gives young players a fair chance of first team football we become a far more attractive proposition in the scramble to get the best youngsters available...A win win situation.
I get the feeling many Wolves fans are more confident about the future of the club than they were six weeks ago.But we will need to learn how to become more patient with the players.Young players will produce moment of magic but also are prone to more mistakes than their more experienced counterparts so we need to give them our full support and lay off their backs when things go wrong occasionally,as they surely will...
The new season begins in ten days---Sorry Prem fans,you're annual scramble for the glory of pursuing 4th place does'nt start till the 17th Aug---For my part i can't wait to see our new look team do it's stuff...
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