Wolves bolster backroom staff with landmark move

Jack Wilson has been poached from Premier League champions Manchester City, where he spent two years as first team performance analyst for set pieces, and he has joined Wolves in Marbella for their pre-season preparations.

Before that, Wilson was a first team performance analyst at Brentford for two years and the Scot has also worked with the Irish FA, Hearts and Dundee United.

Head coach Gary O’Neil said: “Set plays are a huge part of the game now and the numbers we managed to achieve on them last year were good, but I was fortunate enough to meet Jack and look through some of his work. I don’t meet too many people who go into as much detail on gameplans as I do, but Jack is one of the closest I’ve ever met to being as extreme in his detail.

“I’m delighted to be able to take him from Manchester City and he’ll be a huge asset to us. The fact we got him in early, for the whole of pre-season, is important for the boys because we’ve started to do a little bit of work and it will start to stand us in good stead for the season.

“He’s got some really interesting ideas around set plays and how things should be done. Last year, as a coaching team, you work hard on set plays, but you all have other roles and jobs you need to fulfil at the same time, but Jack’s focus can be purely on set plays. His purpose is to make Wolves better at set plays and he can knuckle down and get into the details, and the players have responded well.

“If you stand still for a moment in football, you get left behind quickly because it’s moving on tactically. People are trying to gain small margins and it’s important we do what we think we need to do. It’s a fantastic one for the club to get done.”