Former Wolves captain Conor Coady has been speaking some more about why he left Molineux in the summer.
Coady departed the club fairly early in the summer, and joined Leicester City for a reported fee of around £7.5 million, plus a further £1 million in add-ons.
It was something most Wolves fans saw coming. Coady had spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Everton and had been a regular in their starting XI up until Sean Dyche came in. Dyche preferred a pairing of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane, with Coady spending a lot of time on the bench towards the end of the season.
Everton did not trigger the option to buy they had on Coady.
So there was some talk about him returning to Wolves and perhaps coming back into the squad under Julen Lopetegui.
But in the end, Coady’s exit happened fairly quickly, and the 30-year-old has opened up again on leaving Molineux…
Conor Coady admits he and Wolves were on different paths at the time of his exit
Seemingly, there was never really any chance of Coady coming back into the picture at Molineux.
Just days after reporting back to Compton Park, he held talks about his future and by July 1 he had become a new Leicester player.
Ultimately, it all came down to Wolves going in a different direction.
Coady said (The Telegraph): “I had a big think in the summer and didn’t feel it was right to go back there. Not just for myself, but for the club as well. I just felt they were on a new path.
“They were onto a new way of doing things, and I said that to them. They understood it as much as me, I’ll always have that connection because I love the place to bits. Eight years is a long time in football and not many players do that.
“To have this opportunity to come to Leicester, with the players they’ve got, I didn’t want to turn that down.”
It was time for Coady to move on
Coady was an amazing servant for Wolves. He played a huge role in helping to get the club into the Premier League and become an established Premier League outfit.
He was absolutely solid for the most part playing in that very niche role in the middle of a back three.
But there was always a feeling of the writing being on the wall for Coady the moment former manager Bruno Lage changed Wolves’ primary formation to one that used four at the back. Coady was on the bench for Wolves’ first two games last season, and that was his cue to leave on loan.
Clearly, Lopetegui did not see a way back into the squad for Coady and therefore, the decision was made to sell. And to get £7.5 million for him, considering Everton’s buy option was only £4.5 million, was decent business.
Sometimes new chapters are just inevitable, and Coady is now really enjoying life at runaway Championship leaders Leicester, while Wolves are looking promising in the Premier League under Gary O’Neil.