Wolverhampton Wanderers Academy coach Scott Sellars has stated this week that with head coach Nuno Espirito Santo still planning on operating with a reduced squad in the 2019/20 campaign, despite our additional commitments in the Europa League competition it’s vital that our youngsters are ready to step up to the plate and seize their chance if it comes.
With a few departures, most notably Helder Costa to Leeds United, and with Raul Jimenez and Romain Saiss still to return properly given their international adventures this summer, the squad is pretty thin on the ground in many respects as we prepare for the trip to China for pre-season and then the early Qualifying Rounds of our European adventure, but Sellars knows this offers our youngsters a pretty unique opportunity to impress and get their senior careers up and running.
Speaking to the E&S this week with it expected that the likes of Max Kilman and Bright Enobakhare will be given opportunities to shine, they won’t be the only ones of course, so Sellars knows their mindset has to be right.
“If I was a player now, I’d be looking at Wolves with 18 first-team outfield players – if there’s an injury, or they can impress in the under-23s or in the hundreds of training sessions they could have with the first-team. It’s an open route. If they have a mindset of saying ‘this is a chance’ rather than making up the numbers, they can do it.”
Sellars went on to say that Nuno has already spoken to them and told them to be ready, so he’s hoping to see our young lads actively look to impress during pre-season rather than just believing their time will come.
“That’ll be Nuno’s decision. Elliott Watt, Ryan Giles, Max Kilman and Benny Ashley-Seal all got opportunities last season so he’s not afraid to do it. I’ve never been at a club where it feels like everything is interlinked between the academy and first-team. The academy plays the same way as the first team, the principles are the same and the manager talks about young players, he wants to look at the 16 or 17-year-olds, not just the under-23s.”
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