Ryan Giles tipped for Wolves first team spot

The 22-year-old left-wing-back, who has also featured as a winger, has had several loans in the early stages of his career.

This season he impressed at Cardiff before returning to Wolves in January and featuring on the bench and then returning to the Championship at the end of the month on a loan with promotion-chasing Blackburn.

Wolves head coach Bruno Lage is understood to be a big fan of Giles and wants him to compete next season and former Wolves player Hunt believes he is capable of challenging.

“I’ve been to a lot of Wolves first team games recently and when I look at the boy Giles out on-loan, he’s the one that I think will come back and play (next season),” Hunt said speaking at the Watson Metters Football Legend Golf Series. “He’s doing very well in the Championship and is having a successful season.

“Gibbs-White is out on-loan as well and is doing well, but these boys need games to develop and fingers crossed they’ll keep going the way they’re going.”

Giles and Morgan Gibbs-White are two of Wolves’ academy prospects currently enjoying impressive spells in the Championship, highlighting how much Wolves’ academy has progressed in recent years.

The under-18s recently got to their first FA Youth cup semi-final since 2005, while the under-23s easily dispatched rivals Albion 4-0 last week.

“An academy structure these days can be based on two or three different things,” Hunt added.

“You can have a lot of very good players but there’s two projects, one to get them through and get them in the first team as quick as possible and the other is to have a lot of good players that have value, so if they don’t make it they can sell them on for good money.

“There’s two ways to do it and Wolves are trying to bring young players through to play in their first team, and there’s a lot of good examples of that over the last two or three years.

“More importantly, the players are getting better and improving in the academies.

“Those days are irreplaceable, everyone remembers the FA Youth Cup and they’re all in it together. The academy these days are developing to play like the first team and Wolves do it very similar. They are doing a good job.”

Wolves’ first team are also having a successful season as they chase qualification for European football next season.

And Hunt believes the change in tactics and playing style – and how quickly the players have adapted – has been key to that success.

“I’ve been extremely impressed,” Hunt added. “They had a little blip recently, which was going to come at a certain stage, but they’ve been excellent since Nuno left.

“They’ve transitioned from a low block, pressing, counter-attacking team into a very aggressive pressing team.

“Wolves are doing very well and have done a great job behind the scenes because the transition into that is never easy when you have a successful manager like Nuno.

“Now, Bruno Lage is doing a great job. They’ve had a low block for years and it’s almost like going from a Mick McCarthy 4-4-2, which was his style, to a team passing out from the back. It just wouldn’t have happened with the players we had.

“The manager has done a great transition this year. Look at Neves, I think his body shape has changed. he looks more physical and is getting around the pitch better.

“A lot of players have adapted to him (Lage), which is to his credit.”

The Watson Metters Football Legends Golf Series www.watsonmettersgolf.com.