Conor Coady: 'You've got to grow – it's sink or swim'
Former Wolves captain Conor Coady speaks exclusively to More Than A Game.
In an exclusive interview for the Inside The Game series, Conor Coady discusses:
How he responded to two 'tough' campaigns upon his Wolves arrival.
Why Eden Hazard was the most difficult opponent he has faced.
How Nuno ‘scripted’ every part of Wolves’ 2017-18 promotion-winning campaign.
That 2019's FA Cup semi-final defeat to Watford remains his 'biggest regret' in life.
How, in 2022, a deal was struck between Wolves and a Turkish club without his knowledge.
There were plenty of sliding doors moments for Conor Coady at Wolves, where he went from Championship utility man to a Premier League regular and a trusted England international.
After a difficult first couple of seasons at Molineux, few could possibly have foreseen the success he would have with the club.
"You've got to grow or you won't be seen again," Coady says about his inauspicious start to life with Wolves. "It's sink or swim."
Coady swam. As Nuno Espirito Santo's on-field lieutenant, he played a vital role as Wolves won promotion to the Premier League and secured successive seventh-placed finishes once there.
Throughout his eight-year association with Wolves, Coady played under five permanent managers and two ownership regimes, leading the club to their first FA Cup semi-final since 1998 and their first European campaign since 1980.
There were low points, too, such as Coady's less-than-amicable 2022 exit, which he has now revealed – for the very first time – came after Wolves agreed to sell him to a team in the Turkish Super Lig.
Speaking exclusively to More Than A Game, Coady tells all in a wide-ranging interview, which you can watch in full on our YouTube channel.
SLOW START
Coady's arrival at Wolves was greeted positively. Having enhanced his reputation on loan at Sheffield United, the tenacious midfielder enjoyed a fine 2014-15 season with Huddersfield Town, even scoring a stunning goal against his future employers at Molineux.
"They told me that if I played well, they'd sell me – that's their model. I loved that season," Coady says, reflecting on his year with the Terriers. "They stuck to what they said, they rang me in the summer, said 'we've agreed a fee with Wolves'. That was it."
He joined a side on the up, with Kenny Jackett's men having narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs one year after racking up 103 points as League One winners.
Coady had big expectations, but the sale of Benik Afobe to Bournemouth deprived Wolves of their best attacker as they finished a dour 2015-16 campaign in 14th.
"They'd just missed out on the play-offs, so I was going there thinking, 'this is huge'. I'd played there a few times when I was at Sheffield United, and they blew through League One. It was a massive opportunity and a huge club.
"We'd just lost Benik, who was the main striker, and it ended up being a tough season, it was poor. But it was good for my development, and the supporters were expecting it to be better, so it was a bit of a learning curve – the crowd made it clear that it wasn't good enough."
If Coady's first season in Old Gold was difficult, his second was bizarre. Fosun International bought the club from Steve Morgan in 2016 and immediately made sweeping changes.
Fifteen signings arrived, while Jackett was replaced by Inter great Walter Zenga on the eve of the 2016-17 campaign, after future Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui reneged on an agreement to take the reins when Spain came calling.
Zenga lasted just 87 days, and Paul Lambert oversaw what remained of another underwhelming season. For Coady, it was a period of adaptation.
"That summer, the new ownership came in. Lopetegui was meant to come in, but he got the Spain job. Zenga came in, he was mad, but he was a really good person.
"It was a transition period for everybody. The owners started bringing a lot of Portuguese players in, but we were flipping from Walter to Lambert as manager, and that season we finished 15th. Again, the crowd are on you, but it was another massive learning curve."
There were positives to be had, though, not least a stunning 2-1 FA Cup victory over Coady's boyhood club Liverpool at Anfield. Another Premier League giant awaited Wolves in the fifth round, providing Coady with one of his toughest tests.
With Coady going on to make his name at centre-back, it's easy to forget that Lambert used him predominantly at right-back. That meant he was tasked with stopping Eden Hazard when Chelsea visited Molineux in February 2017.
"I played right-back against Hazard, and he tore me apart! It was one of the hardest days I've had. I couldn't wait to play against Chelsea, it was the year they won the league. Diego Costa up front, John Terry at the back, they had an incredible team.
"You try and watch clips of [Hazard] before the game, he rips players every week, but he was just top drawer. Right foot, left foot, stepovers, pulling me back and then spinning me, running in behind… it was an eye opener in terms of the level you've got to get to."
NUNO'S MASTERPLAN
The major turning point in Wolves' recent history came on May 31, 2017, when former Valencia and Porto head coach Nuno arrived at the club, one day after Lambert's dismissal.
More investment followed, but this time, it felt different. Drawing on Fosun's close links with Jorge Mendes, Wolves attracted players with European pedigree to the Championship in Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota and Willy Boly. Immediate promotion was the aim.
For Coady, a pre-season trip to Austria proved pivotal, as Nuno dropped him into the centre of his three-man backline. The rest, as they say, is history.
"Nuno came in and the idea was to get promoted straight away, so we knew we'd spend a few quid. We got Neves, Boly, Jota… All these players came in and we were having a go.
"Right at the start, Nuno's first session, I was in the middle of the back three. I thought to myself, 'am I just here to make up the numbers?' I played there and I loved it there. I had a little bit more time on the ball, I could see the game, it was all in front of me.
"On the plane to Austria, Nuno ended up sitting next to me, and it was one of the best conversations I've had with a manager. He scripted everything he was going to do that season. He told me, 'I promise you now, I'll get you to where you need to be'.
"He was the first manager I looked at and thought, 'you're really, really high level'. He stuck to what he'd said, even if we got beat, and we just got better and better. He was brilliant."
Nuno's 3-4-3 system was a stunning success, with Wolves racking up 99 points en route to one of the most impressive Championship title wins in recent memory.
The run-in brought some of the most memorable days in Wolves folklore, including a 2-1 win at Middlesbrough when reduced to nine men and a dramatic 1-0 triumph over title rivals Cardiff City, who missed two stoppage-time penalties to prompt wild celebrations from Nuno.
But Nuno was not one to overindulge as Wolves wrapped up promotion with time to spare. Coady recalls how he was already plotting for the Premier League before the season was through.
"When we got promoted, we didn't stop. Nuno kept me out one day after training and he told me how I had to drop 10 yards next season, already thinking for when we were in the Premier League.
"He said, 'you have to be here next year, can you imagine Hazard running behind you?' I just loved the way he was thinking about the next season already."
WEMBLEY REGRETS
Those preparations paid off on Wolves' top-flight return. However, it wasn't plain sailing from the off, with Coady recalling how a 2-2 opening-day draw with Everton – who had Phil Jagielka sent off – showed there was work to be done.
"The Everton game was an eye-opener – this is the level. We got a draw but the gaffer understood at the time we had to be a bit more confident, approach games a bit differently. We started to improve and understand the pace of the league, because the difference from the Premier League to the Championship is massive."
Improve Wolves did, with their seventh-placed finish the highest recorded by a newly promoted team in the Premier League since Ipswich Town finished fifth in 2000-01.
In the Premier League and FA Cup, Wolves defeated five of the 'Big Six' that season and drew with the other, overcoming Manchester United (twice), Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool, also holding Manchester City at Molineux.
Those results will live long in the memory, but so will a trip to Wembley Stadium to face Watford in the FA Cup semi-finals, for all the wrong reasons.
Goals from Matt Doherty and Raul Jimenez seemingly had Wolves cruising to what would have been their first FA Cup final since 1960. However, Watford's introduction of Gerard Deulofeu changed the game, the Spaniard scoring twice either side of Troy Deeney's stoppage-time penalty.
Coady says missing out on the final remains his biggest regret in life.
"I've never watched it back, I never will. It's the biggest regret of my life. We were 2-0 up, in control. We were flying. For 75 minutes, it was the perfect performance. Maybe this was to our detriment but even down on the pitch, we were thinking, 'we're fine here'.
"Then Deulofeu came on and just changed the game. He came on angry, like he was raging because he'd been left out. He was brilliant.
"But every game that season was so exciting. I could have played every day of the week, the adrenaline was just getting me through it. We got into Europe with 57 points."
Indeed, Watford endured a miserable second trip to Wembley as they were routed 6-0 by City in the final. That result ensured Coady would need his passport in 2019-20, with Europa League qualification secured.
EUROPEAN DREAM
Wolves have a rich history in Europe, with a series of high-profile floodlit friendlies in the 1950s – the most iconic of which saw them overcome Ferenc Puskas and Honved – being credited as a major factor in the foundation of the European Cup.
Thirty-nine years on from a 1980 UEFA Cup exit against PSV, Wolves were finally back on the continental stage, with Coady donning the armband for several unforgettable successes.
Far from being a distraction from Wolves' domestic efforts, those European nights were embraced by everyone at the club, and another seventh-placed Premier League finish showed it was possible to compete on two fronts – even if Arsenal's FA Cup win denied Wolves another European campaign.
"The second season was incredible, playing European football. I hate this thing about European football being a hinderance – it's the greatest thing I've ever done.
"We won 1-0 at Besiktas on a Thursday, and I remember getting back to the changing rooms and having a laugh because we were playing City on the Sunday.
“We got home at 5am, were back in training at 11am, then travelled to Manchester on the Saturday and beat City 2-0 on the Sunday. That's an example of how good it can be. I loved it, it was unbelievable."
Wins over Torino, Besiktas and Espanyol were among the highlights as Wolves reached the last eight, though Coady feels the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – which forced the latter stages to be played behind closed doors in Germany – hindered Nuno's team.
"We got to the quarter-finals, but COVID killed us. Sevilla were top, but when we went 1-0 up we rarely lost. Raul [Jimenez] missed a penalty, then Lucas Ocampos scored late on.
"I always think if we'd have had that at Molineux, with a crowd, we'd have won that game, but it was in Germany. We could have played Inter, and that would have been unreal…"
AN UNSATISFACTORY END
They say all good things must come to an end, and for Coady and Wolves, the parting of ways arrived in 2022. After falling out of favour under Bruno Lage, Coady joined Everton on a season-long loan.
Coady's final two seasons at Molineux were challenging. The Nuno era came to an end after Wolves finished the COVID-impacted 2020-21 campaign in 13th, the absence of fans and Jimenez's awful skull injury reversing their positive momentum.
Nuno's successor Lage started brightly, with Wolves again finding themselves in European contention in early 2022, only to fall away and finish 10th.
Coady's position in the lineup, once a non-negotiable, became a hot topic among fans, who wondered whether the captain's lack of suitability for a four-man backline – with the greater physical demands that entails – was holding the team back.
With Lage set on a 4-3-3 shape for 2022-23, Coady believes the ex-Benfica boss could have done more to help him adapt.
"That was the strangest summer. When I finished the season, I went away with England. I was meant to have a few weeks off, but the club asked if I'd come back earlier. I went back to training, and Bruno was working on something different.
"We'd always been a back-five team, and there'd always been this thing where people said I couldn't play in a back four… I'd never played in a back four but if you want me to play there, just make me better at doing it. I'm the most open-minded player. That was all I'd got."
With Lage favouring Max Kilman and Nathan Collins throughout pre-season and with a winter World Cup on the horizon, Coady had a feeling his days were numbered.
"I wasn't playing. Something wasn't right. I was in Spain for two weeks, but no coaches had said anything to me. Everything was going around my head, knowing I needed to keep my eye on this, knowing there was a World Cup coming in November.
"Then we went to Portugal for a weekend, played Sporting CP on the Saturday then a local team on the Sunday. [Lage] named his team for the Sporting game but I wasn't in the XI – I was raging. With 10 minutes to go, I came on, we saw the game out, but I wasn't happy."
What the defender still struggles with is how his departure was handled.
For the very first time, Coady has revealed he received a call from Turkish side Trabzonspor, who claimed to have agreed a fee for his services with Wolves.
Having heard nothing about the deal from Lage or then-technical director Scott Sellars, Coady sought answers that same night, but was left with the impression that he was not wanted.
"I was in the hotel and there was a phone call from a Turkish number. Then I got a message; 'Conor can you ring me; this is the sporting director at Trabzonspor'. I passed him onto my agent, who rang me back and said, 'Conor, they’ve agreed a fee with Wolves for you'. I was saying: 'no, they've not told me anything!'.
"I was fuming. So I went and spoke to Bruno, asked him what was going on. I was the captain of the club, I'd been there seven years, we'd been through some of the best times and nobody had said a word to me. If I wasn't going to play, fine, but give me a heads-up because it was a huge year for me.
"I knew I wasn't going to play against Leeds the next week in the Premier League and I needed to play before the World Cup. In that week leading up to the Leeds game, I had a phone call with Frank [Lampard], so I knew the clubs were speaking. And then on the Sunday after the Leeds game, I got a call to say they’d agreed a loan with Everton.
"On one hand I was so lucky to get the opportunity I was getting, but then for a player that had been there so long, I couldn't believe how it could just finish like that.
"I remember having that conversation with Bruno, he said to me, 'I'll respect whatever you want to do'. He wasn't really fighting for me. It was the strangest summer, I didn't expect it when I came in for pre-season, then it was done."
While some fans took issue with Coady's reluctance to fight for his place, he says the timing of the World Cup made his decision for him, stressing: "Any other year I'd work and I'd fight to get back in the team, but I had to look at what was coming in November and December."
Despite a less-than-fitting end to his time with Wolves, who he left for Leicester City on a permanent deal last July, Coady retains huge admiration for the club he represented over 300 times.
"I still love Wolves. I love the people there, I love the supporters, I love everything it stands for… I love the entire football club. I just couldn't believe it could finish like that."
Good article this and an excellent companion to the interview.