Kenny Jackett: League One status stopped Wolves from signing Kevin Phillips

Wolves enquired about the former Albion, Villa and Birmingham striker in August and January, but Phillips opted to re-sign for Crystal Palace in the summer then join the Foxes in the last window.

Phillips is now set to join Leicester's coaching staff after retiring with his second successive promotion to the Premier League following the Foxes' Championship title success 12 months since he helped Palace up through the play-offs.

Phillips, who was light-heartedly booed throughout Jody Craddock's testimonial on Monday, revealed on Saturday he could have joined Wolves but decided against it because of his Albion connections and offers from higher up the leagues.

And Jackett said: "He could have come into League One but there were other clubs higher up the pyramid looking to do the same thing – there was Palace and Leicester but I'm sure there would have been a whole host of clubs in between," said the Wolves head coach.

"With someone as experienced and as professional as Kevin, he was pretty straight from the start saying there were other options and with the greatest respect to us at the time, more appealing ones.

"We made tentative enquiries as to availability and cost but it wasn't something he thought was necessarily right.

"And also in what role? Was it coming on as a substitute, which he's seemed to be really strong in recent years?

"We had many things we had to talk about if there was some interest from him.

"We understand the reasons why he didn't, and we enquire about a lot of players to see whether there's a fit both sides."

Jackett added: "He's kept saying 'I'll do one more year' in the last few seasons and got into really good circumstances, had his eye on coaching and now has that opportunity with a Premier League club."

But Jackett denied Phillips was being considered as a player-coach at Wolves, as had been reported at the time.

"I don't think so, initially – we needed someone to score some goals," he said.