With a number of academy teams experiencing tournaments across Europe over the Easter period, wolves.co.uk caught up with coaches Adrian Ganchev and Ryan Howard, who recently took their under-14s away to Italy.
The players were tasked with competing in the Caroli Hotels Trophy in Gallipoli and despite being much younger than their opponents, proudly battled to record a third-place finish in Group B, just below Juventus and Lecce who advanced to the knockout stages – the latter narrowly losing out in the final to eventual winners Real Casarea. However, the trip was more than just the on-pitch action, with the academy youngsters gaining valuable life experiences away from the comforts of Compton. Ganchev and Howard sat down with wolves.co.uk to talk through how the tournament unfolded and discussed how the players maximised the tour with off-field activities and mixed with different cultures, all while demonstrating the club’s values in the best way possible.
Day 1 | Travelling to Italy
“Before arriving we had quite a lot of travel from here to Stansted, from Stansted to an airport nearby and then another two hours of travel. I think we travelled for 10 or 11 hours in total and then we had a slight delay as well.
“We needed to play on the morning after so for the players individually, it’s really important to manage sleeping, food and screen time on their phones – little things that added to the whole experience.
“The first day was difficult but afterwards you could see the learning taking place, which is what we were pleased with.”
Matchday 1 | Lecce 5-1 Wolves, Wolves 1-1 Terni
“It was a really good experience for the boys in terms of lots of people watching, lots of buzz around the place and we came up against some big, physical teams.
“Lecce was the first game and it took a bit of time for us to get into it but, as soon as we started getting going, we did quite well.
“We played some really good football – it just took, with a younger group, a bit of adjusting to get up to speed.
“There was a bit of a break in the middle of the day so we could go back, get some food and then we were straight onto it with an evening game.
“I think evening games always bring a different feel when you’re away and under the floodlights. We did really well in the second game and it was such a dominant performance, but just lacked that cutting edge. How we develop the players is slightly different but when we go to these tournaments, we want to develop that cutting edge in the boys. A few years down the line, they’ll be playing for the 18s in the FA Youth Cup and that’s going to be something they’ll go through where the result matters.”
Matchday 2 | Wolves 2-5 Juventus, Wolves 7-0 Olimpia Binonto
“On the third day we played Juventus on the morning at a different venue – a traditional, local ground.
“Apart from the parents, there were probably around 100 people who were buzzing off the boys, asking for autographs and shouting their names.
“Playing Juventus was a big deal for the city that we were playing in and there was a bit of pressure in terms of the atmosphere.
“It was a difficult game because they’re a decent team, but we played our youngest team due to injury, suspension and a couple of things where players couldn’t play. We ended up with a group of 2010s playing against Juventus 2009s – fair play to the players, they really grafted and ended up winning the second half.
“We lost the game overall but in terms of identity, how we want to behave and approach a game, we were really good.
“We were really proud of the players for rising to the challenge. They knew they were up against it in terms of the physical maturity and having quite a young team, but they really put a shift in which was positive to see.
“We played a fourth game in the evening on day three and we could see them really start to settle in. In terms of results, it was the best one we got and we dominated from start to finish.
“Some of the boys individually showed some outstanding bits and they really came together. Another challenge for them was that they don’t normally play as an age group – they play in their school year groups, so coming together for the tournament we slowly saw them gel.”
Matchday 3 | Wolves 5-1 Limite E Capraia
“We had one more group game on the last day and again, we were quite dominant in terms of our performance.
“Having an identity is always a big thing when we go away. We always want to see our teams compete, without stopping the things we actually want to do and getting success in the right way.
“That was our fifth group game and then we had the rest of the day off, so the boys went and played beach football with another club.
“Off the pitch, it’s about life experiences and it was really positive in terms of mixing with people they wouldn’t usually mix with.
“It’s not something we planned – we just went on the beach and all of a sudden they started playing together. It’s different cultures, different experiences and they socially coped very well.”
Friendly | vs Monza
“We finished third out of six and had a friendly game against Monza. They were absolutely huge in terms of their physicality and it was on a big pitch at an old Italian stadium.
“It was a good experience and we had a really small squad as we picked up a couple of injuries on the way, so the boys played loads of minutes that day. I think they were physically gone by that point.
“They grafted all the way through and we couldn’t really fault any of them. For Wolves players and in terms of that determination we want to see, I think they were brilliant.
“From the first game to the last game, there was so much learning taking place and they didn’t make as many mistakes as they did at the start which was pleasing. It was good to see them taking things on board and developing.”
Final day | Experiencing the culture and watching the final
“In the evening we went to a carnival in the city which was again another experience. If they weren’t with Wolves, they probably would never go to that part of the world.
“It was really nice to see them experiencing local culture and that off-the-pitch experience is as important as the on-pitch experience.
“On the last day we went to the final which was socially a brilliant experience. There must’ve been 600/700 people there, it was packed.
“It was a nice way to round-off the tournament before we travelled back.”
