Under-21s head coach James Collins gave an honest reflection on the team’s season in Premier League 2 and across five cup competitions.
Wolves finished 22nd in the league, out of 29 teams, missing out on the PL2 play-offs and seeing their campaign end in a 1-0 defeat to PDL outfit AFC Bournemouth.
But Collins was determined to state league positions are less of a priority to the club, with under-21 football all about helping the first team and allowing players to grow, with the likes of youngsters Mateus Mane and Tom Edozie making their mark in Wolves’ men’s first-team this season.
On assessment of Premier League 2
“The fixture programme that the Premier League put on for us is really good. With Premier League 2, the Premier League Cup, the International Cup, National Cup and Football League Trophy, we have five really good tournaments, and they all give us different challenges.
“But the main priority is always getting players to help the first-team and help the first-team squad, and that's happened this season, which has been good, a real plus to the academy.
“As a group, we were probably a lot stronger before Christmas, and we’ve been a lot younger since then and suffered tougher results, but it's been a good season.”
On his players in the first-team
“Mane has been a shining light for us at a time where the first-team were struggling. He stepped up and credit to Rob [Edwards] for giving him his chance, and he really grabbed that. What a great start for him, and what a great lift it’s been for us.
“That then gives the gaffer and staff a bit more confidence in giving one or two more a bit of an opportunity. Tom [Edozie], what a moment that was for him against Arsenal. Whatever happens in his career, that'll be one of his greatest moments, to get the equaliser against potential champions.
“And then Saheed [Olagunju] has been around them towards the end of the season. Wes [Okoduwa] has been down there too, so we've had some boys that are getting close.”
On wider context of the results
“The club's policy is to push players up and challenge them at higher age groups as early as possible. That comes with great strengths, but it also means it's very difficult to win football matches at under-18s and under-21s. We accept that as our KPIs aren’t on where we finish in the league. If it were, I'd be stopping people going on loans and making sure we kept players around.
“Our KPIs are on our players improving, our players being ready for first-team loans, and our players being ready to be around our first-team, and our league position can almost go off that.
“That's hard to explain to fans, and I understand, because we want to win more than anybody. I’ve been in youth development for a long time, and the context of it is that, are we developing the players? Are the players improving? And can we get suitable loans and first-team opportunities for our players. It isn't about Premier League 2 results.”
On the defeat to Bournemouth
“It’s disappointing because you want the season to last for as long as you can. We’ve now got three and a half weeks left of training without competitive games, which isn't what we wanted. We went down to Bournemouth to win it.
“We played on Friday, but that meant Tom Edozie, Saheed, etc, were with the first-team and the goalkeeper situation because of the first-team injuries is limited at the moment, so we had a trialist in goal who did very well, but it's not ideal preparation to go down for a play-off game.
“But I thought we dominated the game, I thought we were excellent, and on a really difficult pitch, conceded an unfortunate goal, and then we're knocking on the door. Maybe in the end we didn't show the class and quality to get get the ball over the line, but it wasn't a game we deserved to lose. It’s frustrating, because you can accept it if you don’t deserve to win, but if you deserve to win and don’t, it's frustrating.”
On what the next few weeks look like
“We don't over prepare for games, because that's not what it's about. We are here to develop the individuals. For example, if Wes needs to improve his crossing, if he's going to play right back or right wing back, and needs to work on his technical crossing, then we build our sessions around that.
“Obviously, the players and staff like having a game to plan for at the weekend. Everybody wants to play batches of games, and that’s football, even for me, when you're a kid, you want to play matches.
“It does affect the mentality of the boys when we're practising and there's no Saturday or Monday game at the end of it, but now it'll just be about how we develop the individual.”
On opportunities for his players
“It'll give some under-18s a chance to go back to their own age group, so you may see an improvement in 18s results at the end of the season, because if the players who are 16 or 17 had stayed with the 18s all season, they’d be much higher in the league, but they've been with us, so that will help them and hopefully give them a nice end to the season.
“The boys that are left with us, that train with us, it gives them a chance to improve and gel. We've got a few who haven't played a lot of 21s football until the last few weeks, so this gives them a chance to have some games now, and really integrate properly with the group, fully and be ready for a big season, next season.”
By Malaika Khan
