Wolves offer pro contracts to three

Wolves have offered contracts to three of their academy scholars to join another trio who have already signed.

Defender Michael Ihiekwe and midfielders Louis Harris and Jack Price have been offered professional deals, while goalkeeper Daniel East, defenders James Parsonage and Sam Griffiths and striker Andre Landell have been released.

Academy manager Kevin Thelwell is delighted with the uptake.

He said: "With the offers made we will now have 60 per cent of this intake of scholars signing professional terms, which is a good return. There was some tough decisions and the other four lads came very close.

"When you look at the six, all have played reserve team football, Ethan Ebanks-Landell and James Spray have been on the bench for the first team and Johnny Gorman is a senior Northern Ireland international.

"On that basis, from an academy perspective, we are absolutely delighted. But it's just the start of another journey.

"They've got to knuckle down and work on any deficiencies they have and also improve their strengths and hopefully earn another contract before they can even think about the first team.

"Players aren't really coming through until they're 21 or 22. A good example of that is at Villa with players like Barry Bannan, Marc Albrighton, Isaiah Osbourne, Ciaran Clark and Jonathan Hogg.

"So now the hard work really starts."

The full management staff is involved in the decisions on who is taken on, as well as Thelwell and his team.

He said: "All the technical staff are involved in the decisions including myself and Mick Halsall from the academy and also Mick McCarthy, Terry Connor, Pat Mountain and Steve Weaver.

"The gaffer and Terry try to see as many games as they can and have seen them play regularly in the reserves.

"And they're able to see them in training and compare and contrast them against players in the development group.

"It has to be a collective decision."