Wolves winger Michael Kightly hailed Mick McCarthy after his latest award and compared the Wolves boss to Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger.

McCarthy has won the League Managers’ Association’s Championship Manager of the Year, after guiding the team back to the Premier League.

The Molineux chief bought Kightly for £25,000 from non-league Grays Athletic in 2007 and the wide man believes the boss’s prudence with ambition matches that of Gunners boss Wenger.

‘Kights’ said: “The gaffer hasn’t spent silly amounts of money getting us there.

“The wage structure here is sensible and not stupid and he’s done it using his experience and with bargain buys, improving the players he brings in.

“That’s quality if you ask me, Arsene Wenger does it time after time with Arsenal.

“He buys someone like Nicolas Anelka for under £1million and sells him for over 20 -then the same with Patrick Vieira.

“He improves players like that and is looked upon as one of the best in the world.

“Mick McCarthy has done exactly the same as that but in the Championship.

“Hopefully he will be doing it at this club for many years to come.”

Kightly is currently recovering from a broken metatarsal and minor surgery, but insists he wouldn’t be the player he is without McCarthy.

The 23-year-old said: “The gaffer has really brought me on as a player since I joined.

“For a manager like Mick McCarthy to take a punt on me for 25 grand is something that’s almost unheard of.

“I thank him for that and I owe him a lot. Since he came in he’s been different class. ”