Deemed “surplus to requirements” and linked with Sheffield United in August, Conor Coady is now “vital” to Wolves promotion says Danny Higginbotham.
Danny Higginbotham has heaped praise on Wolverhampton Wanderers captain Conor Coady for the part he has played in his team’s push for promotion this season.
Wolves have been the runaway leaders in the Championship for much of the campaign and with 13 matches left to play have a nine-point lead over second-placed Cardiff City.
Coady has missed just one of those matches, due to suspension, and has been skipper for most of the 2017/18 term in his role as sweeper in a three-man central defence for head coach Nuno Espirito Santo.
“Conor Coady is a massive part of the success story at Wolverhampton this season,” Higginbotham wrote in his Sun column. “Wolves are almost certain to gain promotion to the Premier League… and Coady has been vital to that charge.
“He is brilliant on the ball. His distribution, short or long, is fantastic. That is partly because he has grown up as a midfielder. But he uses it so well he always gets Wolves on the front foot.
“He is an intelligent lad, a good organiser and great reader of the game. As a result, his positioning is top class.”
It’s amazing to think then that only in August last year the Sheffield Star were reporting that Coady was “surplus to requirements” at Molineux.
This came after Sheffield United, where the 24-year-old played on loan from Liverpool during 2013/14, had a bid turned down for the versatile defender.
This seems far from the truth now, but in fairness to the newspaper, there was a claim made on the back of Coady having failed to find a consistent position under three different Wolves managers, being used as a central midfielder in 2015/16 and then a right-back in 2016/17.
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