Kevin Thelwell: Wolves pups will still get chance in Premier League

Thelwell dubbed the Wolves head coach ‘young at heart’ for his approach to blooding youth prospects.

The sporting director was speaking at the Premier League Youth Development conference, which was held at Molineux last week.

More than 500 coaches from all 92 clubs in the Premier League and EFL attended the two-day event, which was also hosted at The Hawthorns.

Burnley boss Sean Dyche gave a talk on how to deal with elite players and Wolves under-23 chief Scott Sellars spoke of how the club gets the best from its young talents.

Thelwell said young players were a key part of owner Fosun’s long-term strategy.

And he added: “For Nuno, we’ve been delighted. I see him as a coach who I regard as being young at heart.

“What I mean by that is he likes working with young players, he likes developing young players, and right from the start of the project he’s talked to me about having a much smaller and leaner senior squad, and having that squad supported by young players.

“I have to say he’s been brilliant at giving those young players opportunities. Harry Burgoyne, Morgan Gibbs-White, Oskar Buur Rasmussen, Bright Enobakhare, we’ve had lots of young players that have been given chances to play at this level, which is great for us. Him and his staff have always taken a keen interest in watching the under-23 games and, when the time presents itself, the under-18s, but it’s more about the day-to-day basis.

“It certainly makes things significantly harder (in the Premier League), because the standards are so much higher, to get players into the first team, but we’re all looking forward to embracing that challenge. In terms of recruitment we’re hoping it’s going to help us.

“The Premier League is where everybody wants to be, where everybody wants to work. Young players want that opportunity to play at the highest level, and hopefully we’ll be able to give them that opportunity going forwards.”