Matt Doherty described his return to Wolves this summer as a ‘no-brainer’, although has admitted to having doubts about coming back to the club he spent 10 years at before moving on in 2020.
The defender made more than 300 appearances during his memorable first spell in gold and black, where he represented the club all the way from League One into the Europa League – although he has had to settle for cameo outings since returning as he battles with Nelson Semedo for the right-back spot.
But Doherty believes the work he is putting into training every day will provide head coach Gary O’Neil with a difficult decision to make ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United as well as the visit to Molineux of his former club Tottenham Hotspur the following weekend.
On returning to Wolves
“If I didn’t fancy coming back and playing for Wolves, then I wouldn’t have. Of course, you’re a little bit wary about going back on what you’d done before, and I was worried if I’d ruin what I’d done before if the second spell didn’t go so well, but once the opportunity came and I spoke to a few people, you’d quickly get over that and it was a no-brainer in the end.
“That was the main sticking point that I had with it, but it’s a different time now. Julen [Lopetegui] was the manager at the time and he and Matt Hobbs convinced me.
“I still had my house in Birmingham, and my partner, my kids and my family grew up here as well, so after all the deliberation, in the end it was an easy decision.”
On fighting for his place
“Things move fast in football, so you’ve just got to stay switched on, stay professional and stay focused. The one thing you can’t do is lose focus because if you do, your opportunity comes around and you’re not ready to take it. Then you start blaming others, but the only person to blame is yourself.
“You can control how your attitude is in training every day. You can control whether you run around in training or whether you want to do the dirty work in training.
“My dad would always tell me to train like you play. You can’t do that all the time, you can’t do that every single say, but you can have the right attitude going into training because that’s where you get picked. I’ve had managers – and it’s the same here – where you feel you can train your way into the team. You can’t get into the team by not training well.”
On being ‘fortunate’ throughout his career
“I’m just somebody who just gets on with things. I don’t think too much about where I am and what it took to get there – I know how difficult it was and I know how fortunate I am.
“You can have the talent, loads of people have the talent, but sometimes it comes down to little things like who the manager is at the time. When I came to Wolves the first time, Mick McCarthy was the manager. I was fortunate that we had a lot of Irish players at the club at the time. Then when Stale Solbakken came into Wolves, he didn’t rate me at all and I had to go out on loan, then a new manager comes in and he does rate you.
“I was fortunate things like that went my way. Of course, you have to have the talent and you have to perform when you’re given the opportunity, which I managed to do, but it’s fortunate that you end up in the situation where you have the life experiences that I’ve managed to have – going to a big club like Tottenham, being in Spain, and in my time at Wolves, coming back, and things have just worked out quite well.”
On his time at Tottenham
“I had my moments there when things were going really well, but I obviously got injured. But Tottenham is a brilliant club and I absolutely loved it there, and I still have friends there that I’ll speak to forever.
“Obviously, you want it to go as well as possible and people will say that if things had gone well, you’d still be there, and there’s no denying that, but it didn’t work out.
“But I got to work with some of the best players I’ve ever played with and some of the best managers on the planet, so there’s a bit of me that wishes it went better, but that’s just the way it is. I feel fortunate that I was able to play for Tottenham and I have nothing but good things to say about that club.”
On Ireland co-hosting Euro 2028
“How old will I be then? It’s possible that in four years’ time that I’ll be a centre-back, I’ll be a sweeper, cleaning up at the back in a back seven – hopefully!
“But you never know. It’s something that I’ll love to happen but trust us to be hosting it when I’m basically retired, but you never know what will happen. Let’s see.
“First, we’ve got 2024 and I know there’s some crazy outside chance that we can get a play-off somehow, so let’s see what happens there, and then we’ve got the World Cup in 2026 which is something that is very interesting to me.
“But [Euro 2028] will be great for the country. I don’t know how many games we’re going to host, but it will be great for the country, because football is the number one sport in the country and it’s very important for the whole country.”
