I’ve got no fear after Suarez lessons
WOLVES HUDDERSFIELD COADY: KOP STAR RAN ME RAGGED IN TRAINING!
Neil Moxley
LEADING out Wolves in the Premier League doesn’t faze Conor Coady – after all as a teenager at Liverpool he was schooled by Luis Suarez.
The cultured defender has been given the armband by manager Nuno Espirito Santo and has thrived in the role at the heart of the Black Country club’s back line.
It has been a road full of twists and turns for the 25-year-old who, as a young Reds’ wannabe was given an Anfield rap on the knuckles whenever he faced Barcelona star Suarez (below) in training.
Coady said: “I don’t know about toughen me up – back then Luis used to frighten me.
“I’ll be honest with you, he used to twist me inside out all the time during training But it was a brilliant experience. I was only a kid trying to learn and improve – and he was a sensational player.
Character
“For me, it was never the happiest time coming in afterwards because he showed me up a few times.
“I’ve not come up against anyone better.
“But I’ve stuck at it. It’s in your character about sticking in there.
“You can’t throw in the towel – even if you are faced with brilliance.
“Sergio Aguero is another one. I’ve played against him a couple of times now in the past two years. “He’s clever. He always starts behind
you. He’s always offside. It’s tough to find him because he’s never in your eyeline.
“You look one way, he goes the other way.
“You’re thinking to yourself, ‘where is he now’
“But you’ve got to take it in your stride as much as possible. You cannot throw in the towel and think, ‘OK, if you’re doing that, how can I stop you?’ That’s the important bit.”
Coady has been as good as his words, persisting at progressing his career. Given the talent in front of him on Merseyside, he made a conscious decision to leave on loan – first for Sheffield United and then for Huddersfield.
He moved from the Terriers to chance his arm at Wolves and has played a key part in the revival as a core of domestic players have been married seamlessly to a collection of foreign imports.
And a smashed ceiling in the gym is the key to the camaraderie that is making a mockery of the theory that newly promoted teams cannot thrive in their first season in the Premier League.
The Wolves skipper said: “This is probably the best dressing room I’ve been in. We do have a lot of foreign lads. They aren’t just good players, they are fantastic people.
“There’s loads of stuff going on here. Head tennis, table tennis, cricket... they join in with the cricket but they aren’t great at that – Ruben Neves is probably the best. “But they are particularly good at head tennis. Neves and Moutinho are at a different level to anyone else. “As for the cricket, the holes in the gym are bad, aren’t they? Big John Ruddy hits it hard. The staff went mad the first time it happened but there’s nothing they can do now, is there? Big John buys a few balls off Amazon. They arrive and the boys start smashing them around the gym.
Laugh
“The other day, Ryan Bennett belted it and Niall Ennis, one of our Under23s, was on a bike.
“He’s turned his head at the wrong time and it has clopped him in the face... he was all right. But it’s a good laugh for the boys!”