Scott Sellars building for Wolves' first-team

Scott Sellars is in a different position to the majority of football coaches,

For the Wolves under-21 boss, results, while of course not irrelevant, are not the main priority.

Perhaps that's just as well in an under-21 league which, as Sellars admits, isn't necessarily conducive to the type of development Wolves want to prise out of their young starlets.

Sellars, who joined Wolves in 2014, said: "I don't want to be too damning of the under-21 league but I don't think it's a natural stepping stone to the first-team.

"Some weeks you can be playing against under 19-year-old players, or you go to West Ham and they have three first-team players in, so it's so inconsistent.

"To actually judge your players is very difficult. We played against Millwall and they were what I'd call a proper old-fashioned reserve team of pros and young lads and we found it really physically tough.

"But then, when do our centre-halves have to head the ball a lot in under-21s football? They don't, really."

Since Sellars took charge it's fair to say that, in terms of winning matches, it's been a struggle.

Last season they finished bottom of the Barclays U21 Premier League, Division Two, with three wins in 22 matches.

In the same league this season (there is no relegation) they're second from bottom, with two wins from 12.

But Sellars is judged on a different kind of result. He's judged on how many players progress to the first-team. In that regard, Wolves do far better than most.

Dominic Iorfa, Kortney Hause, Jack Price and Jordan Graham are the most recent to make the leap, and do it comfortably to boot, while Bright Enobakhare has impressed whenever he's played this season.

He said: "In any job, if you go in day to day thinking I could get promoted here, that's a really good environment to work in."

Loan moves are often vital in making this progression as smooth as possible.

He said: "Playing men's football, some real physical football, is so important. I watched (goalkeeper) Harry Burgoyne at Telford play in front of 2,500 people and got thrown a bottle at him.

"They're things I can't coach them or teach them – playing in front of a crowd, under pressure, playing for points is vital in their development.

"The old reserve days were, if you didn't play for the first team on a Saturday, you'd play for the reserves on a Tuesday night.

"When I came in at Leeds I was playing with David Harvey, sometimes Kenny Burns, and I learned so much off them.

"At times our lads are playing with the lads they've played with since they were nine years old – they're not learning a great deal in terms of the real game.

"So we've lost a bit of that and I don't know what the solution is."

Sellars is a staunch convert to the Wolves way of thinking, of playing, and of developing.

The proof, he says, is in examples such as winning an under-19 tournament in Germany last year, or in the under-18s who recently beat Everton 8-0.

There is also a pathway to the first team, something that wasn't the case in his role as academy boss at previous club Manchester City.

He said: "It's all about development. I don't mind getting beat, as long as we're performing in the right way. I totally believe in what we're trying to do."

HIS INFLUENCE

"It's not the Scott Sellars, way, it's the Wolves way.

"We play the same way through the club and it's continually discussed. Myself, Jerry Gill (under-18s boss), all the way down we have consistent coaching sessions.

"I work with the under-16s, under-15s and the under-12s as well. We all have our little ways of doing things but can't be black to our white, it can't be consistently different, because that's what causes problems.

"You get the same messages and consistency. If a great 13-year-old goes into the under-15s because we think it's the right challenge, it's not going to take him six months to adjust because he's doing the same work.

"Some of the lads like Niall Ennis, Connor Ronan and Daniel Armstrong, went away to Everton and won 8-0. That shows we've got good players in the system and the first team's proof of that as well.

"Sometimes in the under-21s you have so say they were older, they were better, and we've got 16 or 17 years olds (in the team), that's how we want to do it.

"The results are Dominic Iorfa, Kortney Price, Jordan Graham, Bright Enobakhare, Jack Price, Ethan Ebanks-Landell.

"So the system works."

THE WOLVES WAY

"I've massively bought into it. There's a real pathway and a plan for young players.

"At my previous club at Manchester City it was frustrating, we had some really top talented kids who got very frustrated, they couldn't see a pathway,

"And then also the plan to develop their next loan step, I didn't think was to the same level of detail in terms of it was difficult to get them out.

"Here it's a lot clearer, probably because we've got fewer numbers as well, it makes it easier. But the clear pathway here is important.

"We're always saying here before every game, who's the next Dominic Iorfa, who's the next Jordan Graham, who's the next Jack Price, who is it? It's there for you.

"Kenny watches the games, Joe Gallen, Rob Edwards, they all watch the games, so that's a massive advantage.

"In any job, if you go in day to day thinking I could get promoted here, that's a really good environment to work in."

A GOLDEN GENERATION?

"Part of why I wanted to get Eusebio out on loan and others as well is that I want to get some of these young ones into the under-21s.

"We want to challenge them, your Connor Ronans, your Niall Ennis', your Daniel Armstrongs, your Nicu Carnats, your Ryan Leeks, your Connor Johnsons.

"They all need challenging and if we're not careful, we might be up near the top of the league in the 18s but me and Jerry are always looking for the challenges to be tough enough.

"Nicu's trained with us up against Donovan Wilson and it's a different proposition - he's a lot quicker and more powerful, and Nicu's having to go, 'wait a minute this is a difficult', and I'm saying you've got to be more aggressive, because that's the area he needs to get better.

MANAGEMENT

"I've always been the sort of type that I'm not massively looking long term. I'm enjoying my job, I love working in football, I've been in it since I was 16 professionally.

"I enjoy the under-21s, it's my first experience. I've been an under-18s coach, an academy manager, an assistant manager. I just like working and coaching with players, I like being out on the pitch and developing players.

"Jordan, Dominic, Kortney, that's my job and that's what I say, who's the next one?

"I see myself more of an individual coach than a team coach and I would probably have a different outlook (as a manager or first team coach)