Conor Coady will always have a place amongst Wolves’ modern day greats

There are so many attributes that spring to mind when describing the impact of Conor Coady at Wolves. An integral figure under Nuno Espirito Santo, he led a special group of players to heights that supporters had not witnessed for generations.

It was back in the summer of 2017 that Nuno identified Coady as the keystone of his defence. Then aged 24, the player had spent the previous season filling in at various positions across midfield and right-back. If Nuno spotted something in Coady, then the Liverpudlian certainly spotted something in the new head coach.

“I knew I needed to step up if I was going to be playing in a position I hadn’t played before,” he explained during an interview we did for the Revolution of Wolves book. “Because as soon as he mentioned a five, I knew I wasn’t going to be playing wing back! It had to be in the middle of a back three where he had me in training.

“Out in Austria [in pre-season] we were playing Werder Bremen and he named me in the team, in the middle of a back three. And I knew I had to give him something which made him feel I could affect the game in that position. He was amazing in terms of what he expected from us. I had to up my game in terms of giving him what he wanted.

“The way he spoke to me and the way he made me feel was great. And it applied to all of us. It was a case of either going with him or not. He was saying, ‘I’m here and I’m the boss and I will make you better. If you come up with me then good, if you don’t then you do what you want to do.’ That was it in a nutshell, no beating around the bush. He explained things and we understood it. That is how he set his stall out.”

The player’s leadership qualities emerged almost immediately. It was a quiet dressing room that Nuno discovered on his arrival. Aside from Coady’s ability to play the ball out of defence, his effervescent and infectious character was perfect for a head coach who needed to convey his message throughout the team. Coady captained both the Liverpool U18s and U21s, and at international level skippered England's U17 side to victory in the 2010 European Championships, then three years later led the U20 side at the World Cup.

A vocal and organising presence since his days at Liverpool’s academy in Kirkby, Coady quickly established himself as the captain of the pack in the Championship when club skipper Danny Batth was out of the side. As the team took its first steps in the Premier League, Coady came to be regarded as the talisman on the pitch.

And he was always a pleasure to deal with off the pitch, willing to put himself forward in the absence of others to conduct media duties, regardless of the result, because it was sometimes in defeat that his team-mates relied on him most to be the public face of the dressing room.

Coady was a dream for the staff behind the scenes, too. He portrayed the club in the best light and won the hearts of all who encountered him, understanding that captaining Wolves meant immersing himself in the local community. He became an ambassador of the Wolves Foundation. Matchdays were a family occasion, with the Coady clan proud to watch on from the stands and support the team. Young supporters could not have wished for a better role model. If anything, the passage of time since his departure has merely reinforced these qualities.

After leading Wolves into Europe, a journey that went as far as the quarter-finals of the Europa League, it was a deserved call-up from manager Gareth Southgate that began a new chapter with the national team.

On 8 September 2020, Coady took his place in the heart of England’s defence for a Nations League fixture against Denmark, becoming the first Wolves player since Steve Bull, 30 years earlier, to start a game for England. Coady crowned his next appearance, a 3-0 win over Wales, with a goal. He made 10 appearances for his country, in total, and was part of the Euro 2020 squad for the tournament which was delayed by a year following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wolves fans will have their own favourite memories of a player who just loved being part of Nuno’s team. He was the on-pitch embodiment of the emotions supporters were going through in the stands.

Personally, it was Wolves’ fourth goal in the Championship title-sealing triumph at Bolton Wanderers which will never be forgotten. A lily-gilding penalty that had no bearing on the result, it was celebrated by the travelling hoards in gold and black as if it was the decider. Because it was Coady.

There would be plenty more celebrations on a journey that saw Wolves climb to seventh in the Premier League in two successive seasons and enjoy that thrilling run in the Europa League, with outstanding victories on the road in Turin, Istanbul and Bratislava among the highlights.

The manner of Coady’s departure was not as fitting as it should have been. There was no emotional lap of honour around the pitch, or an opportunity to wave goodbye to supporters. Instead, the captain was frozen out of Bruno Lage’s plans ahead of the 2022/23 season. Spells at Everton, Leicester, Wrexham and Charlton followed before his retirement.

But the end of his time at Wolves is only a footnote to a phenomenal career at Molineux. Coady earned a permanent place in the hearts of all Wolves supporters. He took the ideas of a revolutionary head coach and ran with them. Forging bonds between homegrown and overseas team-mates, immersing himself in a community and working tirelessly towards one goal. He made it his raison d’etre to lift the Wanderers to new heights. As a captain, the club has never been able to replace him.