U-turn at Wolves as Jonathan Hunter-Barrett set to become Academy Director

There has been a lot of chopping and changing within the Wolves hierarchy in recent months, and now the club are set to make a new appointment.

Wolves restructured in the summer, which saw Matt Hobbs leave and Domenico Teti come in as director of professional football.

But in November, Teti left the club, days after Vitor Pereira was sacked – and that prompted another reshuffle recently.

Matt Jackson was promoted to the role of technical director at Wolves, and he’ll now work closely with the recruitment team, as well as Matt Wild, Jeff Shi and Rob Edwards.

But Wolves are reportedly now set to announce another new hire, with journalist John Percy sharing some interesting news this morning.

Jonathan Hunter-Barrett to become Academy Director at Wolves

Percy has reported on this morning that Wolves are now set to appoint Jonathan Hunter-Barrett as their new Academy Director. This comes as a U-turn, following reports recently that Hunter-Barrett was heading for Rangers.

He wrote: “#Wolves to appoint Jonathan Hunter-Barrett as the club’s new Academy Director.

“JHB was due to start at #Rangers in January in a similar position but will now be staying at Wolves, working closely with Rob Edwards & Matt Jackson in the new sporting structure #wwfc.”

Hunter-Barrett previously held the title of Academy Manager.

On Wolves’ official academy page, Hunter-Barrett’s responsibilities were listed as: “I am responsible for all of the performance-related activities of the academy such as coaching/club philosophy, coach and player development, team identity, culture and environment.”

Hunter-Barrett has had quite a number of roles at Wolves since he first started working at the club in 2011, including:

• Part-Time Development Centre Coach
• Part-Time Pre Academy and Foundation Phase Coach
• Full-Time Academy Administrator and U9’s Lead Coach
• Lead Foundation Phase Coach
• Head of Coach Development U9-12
• Head of Coaching
• Head of Coaching/Football Operations

As Wolves enter a new era, hopefully Hunter-Barrett can thrive in his new role, and be instrumental in helping more players emerge from the academy to play in the first-team.

The Express & Star have reported that Hunter-Barrett was ‘understood to have been enthused by the promise of a greater connection between academy and first-team in the new structure headed by Jackson and head coach Rob Edwards’.

So given that, hopefully we do see some academy talents eventually develop to a point whereby they can jump up into the first-team squad.