Having found himself on the sidelines more often than not during the second half of Wolves 2022/23 season, Nathan Collins is determined to get back to being a regular part of the defence.
The Irishman will soon join up with his national team for their Euro 2024 qualifiers this summer, but on his return to Molineux next month, Collins will continue to fight hard to gain his place in Wolves’ starting 11 as they look for a positive beginning to the new campaign.
On a rollercoaster 2022/23 season
“It’s been exciting, there’s been a lot of ups and downs because it’s been a tough season, but overall, I’ve really enjoyed it, I’ve made good friends, I’ve got on with a lot of people, it’s a good place to be involved and I’m looking forwards to the future.
“It’s obviously tough, especially when you had the World Cup involved, it made it an awkward one from a player’s standpoint, but as a team, we always backed each other.
“We always knew the quality we had, and we never thought we were really in doubt, but we stood up to the challenge, we worked well together, and we overcome it as a team.”
On beating the drop
“I think all of us knew that we would be safe eventually, but I just enjoy playing football. I just want to play football and any game I can play, regardless of the situation, I’ll enjoy it because I just like playing.
“But we always knew, in the back of our minds we always felt we’d get results and there was never a moment that we felt out of it. We knew we would get enough wins because we had enough quality in the squad, and it did, it came true.”
On the quality in the Wolves squad
“People always say there are teams who are too good to go down, and I think we knew we were good enough with the quality we had.
“There is a lot of quality here and we knew we had a lot of good players and goals to improve on, but we still had to get over that line, working as an 11, defending and attacking as a 11, but we had a lot of individual quality, and we knew that if we gelled properly, we’d be fine and we were.”
On losing his place under Lopetegui
“The new manager has been good for us since he came in and obviously it was tough for me not playing, because I always want to play.
“But when he came in, we had one goal to aim for and that was to stay in the Premier League, and we did that with his help. To get that goal, he had to make a few changes, he took some risks, and everything worked out well.
“Even though I’ve not played as much since he came in, I’ve learnt a lot and I’m just looking forward to the future now.”
Nathan Collins racing back to make an important block.
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 22, 2022
🐺⛔️ pic.twitter.com/TAKVsbEhOh
On keeping focused while out of the side
“I was just trying to be ready and stay motivated. I just wanted to be ready for the lads whenever I was needed.
“It was always about being ready for when I was needed and if I could help the lads in any way possible, then I was going to do it.”
On aims for next season
“For me, I just want to get back playing and have everyone enjoying their football. Everyone playing, having a style of football that we all want to play, being a threat at home and winning games away from home as well, because we’ve not been able to do that many time this season.
“But really, we just want to play our best football. I’m just looking forward to playing football again because I love so much playing football, whenever I can, so that’s the only aim for me, I just want to get out there and play as much as I can.”
