Shropshire Star

Kenny Jackett defends Steve Morgan's commitment to Wolves' youth policy

Wolves boss Kenny Jackett today mounted a robust defence of Steve Morgan as he insisted the chairman has shown guts to back him and create a legacy.

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Morgan is set to address Wolves fans tonight for the first time publicly since his appearance at a fans' parliament in February 2013, when he appears at the club's end-of-season awards dinner at Telford International Centre.

The multi-millionaire received a mixed reception when he appeared on the pitch on Saturday at the presentation of the League One title trophy.

Some fans have struggled to forgive Morgan for the decisions that contributed to the club's dramatic slide through two divisions before Jackett arrived .

But the head coach said: "For the chairman to back me and us as well as he has is a considerable achievement. To continue with the size and structure of the commitment to the youth policy when we'd just gone down to the third tier was both expensive and took guts.

"He listened to me in my interview saying 'I'd sideline these people and these are my reasons', and backed me to do that when there were polls asking 'should we have player X back and should he play?' etc, and that showed a tremendous amount of guts."

"I think it proves his determination to get back to the Premier League.

"To continue with the development of the youth side for which Sir Jack Hayward started with his legacy of leaving us this training ground - right from Graham Taylor's days when they trained at Lucas Aerospace - shows a tremendous commitment.

"Bully was telling me you had to get out by 12 noon because all the factory workers would be around the pitch and you couldn't get out.

"Sir Jack developed Compton with the aim of giving the club long-term foundations and to develop a youth policy that might not look after the club not in one year, but in one or two decades' time, would really look after the basis of the club.

"The present chairman is very keen to continue it.

"If you ask the majority of football supporters how important a youth policy is they'd all say they want to see homegrown players.

"It's like an overlap to the community and reinforces the link between the players and the supporters."