First-team coach Shaun Derry is looking forwards to seeing where Wolves’ season is going to end up despite the disappointment of dropping out of the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage last weekend.
The former Crystal Palace midfielder linked up with his old Portsmouth teammate Gary O’Neil at Molineux at the start of the 2023/24 campaign having left the coaching staff at Selhurst Park. But moving away from south London also meant moving away from his family, including his 16-year-old son - and Eagles' under-21 winger - Jesse, who has been called up by England under-17s for their international fixtures this week.
Derry has revealed how difficult it has been to watch his son develop from afar, but insists he is enjoying the new challenge he’s faced in helping revitalise the Old Gold alongside O’Neil.
On his first season at Molineux
“I am really enjoying it here at Wolves and it’s been a fantastic season so far. Of course, we had a disappointment at the weekend, but on the whole, it’s been a very good seven or eight months that we’ve been here.
“I’m looking forwards to the last 10 games, although it’s going to be a challenge for us, but it’s been a brilliant challenge for me personally.
“I’ve spent large parts of my career at Crystal Palace, so to come away from the football club and experience something different at Wolves has been brilliant for me.”
On the use of AI in football
“Football is constantly developing, isn’t it? The facts that analysis is playing a huge part in the game and is so much more prominent now than perhaps it was 20 years ago, and AI is going to be a different tool that we’ve all got to be open and look into as a factor that can hopefully help us.
“But as a coach and as a developer, you don’t want to lose sight of what your eyes tell you because that is a large part of being a coach and being involved in football. But we’ve got to embrace it, of course, because you’re always looking for that one per cent – which is what you always look for – and then we’ll definitely look at that going forward.”
On balancing being a coach and a dad
“When you’re a player, you’re in control of yourself and everything you do, then as a coach, you just take everything in your stride. But it’s very, very different as a dad.
“You have no control over what happens on the pitch, you’re just watching on the sidelines, but that’s exactly the way I wanted it to be – just be a dad. Just watch Jesse and see how his career develops, but I’m very proud.
“Of course, I’m away from home for large parts of the week working at Wolves, so I miss him every night, just as I do his sister as well, and I’m not there all the time, so we’ve tried to get some really good people around him.”
Football perfection for Shaun Derry is Pedro Neto... or Craig Dawson 🙇♂️
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 18, 2023
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On his son representing England under-17s
“He’s very different to me – thankfully! I’d like to think that he’s still got the work ethic somewhere in there, but he’s definitely got the individual talent that I didn’t have.
“I was never good enough at any level to pull on the white shirt and play for my country, and what he’s done in his young career so far is fantastic and it’s made me very proud to watch him develop. Of course, now I’m not at the football club, so to see him develop on his own is a brilliant feeling.
“We do keep his feet on the ground. Me and his mum Jolene, and we’ve got a fantastic agency which is looking after him, and they’ve been brilliant, but Jo’s been great as well – his mum’s been fantastic.”
