Harry Watling believes Wolves’ three assistant head coaches are providing something different for Rob Edwards, and the players are now benefitting from their experience and knowledge.
Watling, alongside Rui Pedro Silva and Paul Trollope, as well as goalkeeper coach Danny Alcock, provides the immediate support for Edwards, and as the youngest of the group at 36 is proving an ear for the players, taking on board messages and handling situations for the head coach.
Watling walked through the door on day one with Edwards, following him from Middlesbrough, and has been on the full journey, building relationships with the players and marking his stamp on training, alongside Silva and Trollope too.
Having managed himself in the past, Watling is now thriving as an assistant Wolves, and admits he had no hesitation in joining back in November, and now results are giving him and all the staff peace of mind that their hard work on the training pitch is paying dividends.
On his time at Wolves so far
“It’s been really good. I’m enjoying the challenge of inheriting a group, inheriting the habits. It's taken us a little bit of time to get our own way across, but I think post-Christmas we've seen some of the really good bits of the group start to come out. We arrive at games now looking like the team that we see on the training ground day in, day out. I'm probably coaching the best I have in my career so far, working under the gaffer, he really lets me be me, and lets me put my little stamp on the team, which I'm really grateful for.
“It’s a massive privilege to work here – a really, really historic football club. The opportunity to work for a club like this is a massive privilege. Every day when you come in and put the kit on, you've got to give 110 per cent, which is what we ask the players to do. It didn't need a massive sell, the fact that you come to work for a club as big as this, with the history that it's got, with a fan base that it's got, and working in the Premier League with the players that we have here, it was one that we took with both hands.”
On following Edwards from Middlesbrough
“We initially had the conversation to go on a journey at Middlesbrough, which a brilliant football club. I really enjoyed it. I felt like we were building something special with the work in pre-season, but ultimately, I went on the journey with Rob. So, my mind was made up, Wolves is a massive football club, and I know how much it meant to Rob. He was very strong in wanting to take me, which was a massive privilege. He told me how important I was in the team, and I felt like I'd earned my stripes with my work at Middlesbrough. It was a real pleasure to be asked to come.
“It was just us two to start off with, during an international break, so it was really good to meet everybody. We had a couple of days with no players at all, so we could get to know the staff, the building, learn a little bit about the culture that had gone before and what we wanted to adapt and add. That really, really benefited us, then when the players came in, the first four or five days it was just me and Rob, so I got to strike up an instant connection with a lot of them.”
On a strong team of assistants
“I'd not worked with any of the guys before, so I didn't really know how it was going to work, but I think that we've got a really good balance. Rui [Pedro Silva] has been here before, so knows the club inside out, and adds his way, then ‘Trolls’ [Paul Trollope] and Danny [Alcock] came in. I’d heard really good things about everybody, but it’s really good to work with them day in, day out. The chemistry that we've got now, everybody knows each other's strengths. I feel they're getting the best version of us. We've all got our different strengths that we bring to the table, and the players really benefit from that.”
On his relationship with Edwards
“I've always got his best interests at heart. I'm up and down a lot on a game day, giving my opinion, and we're sharing things all the time. I'm really lucky to have the trust of the manager, because we’ve all worked in the game for a long time, and that's not always the case. So, to have an open environment speaks volumes about Rob, he listens to everybody, everything, and ultimately he’s strong enough leader to decide whether we're going right or left.
“We all see the game differently. I am always trying to download the game as quickly as possible to see what they're trying to do to us, how we can counteract that, how we can hurt them, getting our players in the best possible goal scoring positions in those transitional moments. It's always quite open communication with us. I'll jump up after five or six minutes, and nine times out of 10 he’s already seen it. It's always relaying that information, and you get a little bit of a feel for the game, that's the most important thing. It's all created by what the gaffer has given all three of us – an open forum.”
On his focus day to day
“I've got a lot of trust from Rob in terms of delivering training. He's really comfortable to have that helicopter view and allow you to coach the team in his image, in how he wants us to behave every day, with real honesty, real commitment, real energy, real enthusiasm. He said the team has not only got to mirror him and his behaviours, it’s got a mirror the people of Wolverhampton, who pay their money.
“You can’t go far wrong if you're talking about honesty, commitment, hard work, desire, just people running around and trying – if you do that better than the other team, you've got a really good chance of winning, and you sprinkle on top the magicians we've got in the group, I think that's why we've started to see us outrun teams, out fight teams, and then start to outplay teams in that order.”
On using his experience as a manager
“It's by design from Rob, he's got three assistants that have all been in the chair, so we know when he needs energy, when he needs a push and prod, when he needs to be left alone, during games when to talk to him, and when to leave him, when to suggest things, and when to wait. We can manage a lot of stuff behind the scenes, so it doesn't even get to Rob. The key is to keep the energy in his bucket as much as possible, so he can be the best manager for our football club. Being a manager before gives you a major advantage in being a good assistant, because you know exactly when to talk, when to listen, what to say, when to be strong on things, when to come away.
On using his age to his advantage
“I think I can communicate probably on a different level with the lads, because of the age thing. Even with the younger ones coming through, I've got quite a special relationship with [Mateus] Mane because he knows a lot of the lads that maybe I've helped develop in the past, so he draws lines of comparison. Even the senior players like Doc [Matt Doherty] or [Jose] Sa, we're quite close in age, so there's a real good openness to have those conversations, which can then go back to the manager.
“As a manager, you have to not be too familiar and manage that distance. As an assistant, you can be on the ground and you can hear the good news and the bad news, and then you have to decipher what needs to go upwards towards Rob, maybe he needs to hear it today, maybe tomorrow, maybe he doesn't need to hear it at all, and we can put that fire out. There's three of us, and we've all got different relationships with different players, so I think it's really helpful.”
On his relationship with Mane
“Mane’s talent is what's got him into this position. He arrived at a really good time for us. We went for a walk before the Liverpool game [his first start], and I said, ‘Look, you're going to start the game, and your world is going to change if you play well’. So, then it's about how we sort of manage that. We go through all of his clips, a lot of his extra stuff which is individualised for him, for his position, set him little tasks before games. You're trying to protect him at the right time, and you also want to expose him at the right time. He's passed a lot of these tests with flying colours. It's credit to him and it's not just me, all of the staff have been great with him. The way Rob's managed him has been brilliant, but it's an example of a relationship, for sure.”
On their work paying dividends
“Rob's been so consistent in saying to the group that if we do these basics really well, you'll start to see your fortunes turn around. After beating Villa and Liverpool, the belief has to go through the roof. Especially in the second half of games we've grown and we've got stronger, and the belief in the building is as good as it's been since we've been here, the training level has gone up, and I think our performances in games have been really, really good.
“We’ll keep our feet on the ground, worry about the next game in front of us, keep believing, that's a big tagline that I've been saying in and around the building for the last few weeks. If we can run with commitment, fight, honesty and the hard work that we have done since Christmas, then who knows? We've got to take it one game at a time, but in and around the building we have to create unbelievable competition for the shirt, understand that you're only borrowing the shirt, you've got to earn it through training properly, and running hard, and when we cross the white line, it's got to be about giving absolutely everything, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
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