Conor Coady has returned to Wolves in danger of becoming yesterday’s man

Just 10 months ago, Conor Coady’s career at Wolverhampton Wanderers appeared to be over.

His emotional message to Wolves fans, as he departed for a loan move to Everton, was not that of a player who ever expected to play for his parent club again.

“This club has been mine and my family’s life and we will never forget it,” he wrote on Instagram. “Thank you to everyone who makes the club what it is and every player I shared the dressing room with!

“This club is special and always will be special. Thank you for everything, I’ll always be a wolf.”

Now, with both Coady’s future and Wolves’ transfer window plans in something of a state of flux, it is conceivable he could become an active wolf again before the summer is out.

Coady finds himself in a unique position, having admitted when speaking on BBC radio this week that he finds himself “in limbo” with Everton after they opted against turning his season-long loan into a permanent deal.

An appeal to the hive mind of journalists at The Athletic did not come up with a direct parallel to Coady’s situation — an established player who has said his goodbyes to his parent club, anticipating a permanent exit, only to find himself back there after less than a year.

James Rodriguez returned to Real Madrid in 2019 after two years on loan at Bayern Munich when the German giants opted against activating a permanent deal, but his status in the Spanish capital was never equivalent to Coady’s at Molineux, where he was the leader and key player through a period of great success.

In 2020, Philippe Coutinho returned to Barcelona, also after a season at Bayern, but there was never the same level of apparent certainty about his move becoming permanent.

In Coady’s case, last summer felt like the natural time to go; the end of an era with a loan move as the prelude to an inevitable permanent departure.

Except now, things have changed and what happens next seems less certain.

As things stand, Coady will be back in Wolves’ squad when the season restarts in August. The 30-year-old has two years remaining on his contract, so would need another club to buy him in order to move on permanently.

The question for Wolves is whether they want their former captain back in the ranks or whether the team has moved on too far without him for Coady to slot back in. And they — and any potential suitors — will face the same problem Bruno Lage faced a year ago.

Having built a solid career as a reliable defensive midfielder, Coady, who joined Wolves from Huddersfield in 2015, was turned into a Premier League stalwart and an England player by Nuno Espirito Santo finding him a role that suited him perfectly.

He can play in different positions and different systems, but only a team with a vacancy for a ball-playing defender at the centre of a back three is likely to get the absolute best from the former Liverpool man.

There has been little indication that Julen Lopetegui plans to deploy a three-man defence at Wolves as anything other than a game-changing measure during specific fixtures, which leaves a major question mark over what Coady’s on-field role would be should Wolves choose to integrate him back into the squad.

He has operated in a back four before but his likely niche — a right-sided centre-back offering experience and leadership — seems to have been taken by Craig Dawson since his arrival in January.

And while Coady has carved out a reputation as one of the most solid team players Wolves have seen in recent years, even he became frustrated with the prospect of sitting on the sidelines before his move to Everton.

Wolves will surely be keen to avoid a situation in the forthcoming season that could test the patience of even the most selfless of senior players.

For that reason, the most likely scenario is that Coady begins pre-season at Wolves but is made available for transfer, either on loan or permanently, with any club that acquires Coady getting a player with plenty still to offer.

After the first eight games of last season, during which Coady featured in a central defensive partnership with James Tarkowski, Everton had conceded just seven goals, the lowest of any side in the Premier League and one less than Arsenal and Newcastle, who were next best — Coady missed the first of those eight games but started the next seven.

However, their expected goals against (xGA) data did suggest their apparent solidity was being inflated by Jordan Pickford’s heroics in goal. At the end of the day on October 1, when Everton had played their eighth game of the season, they had the league’s sixth-highest xGA per game figure (1.64), behind only Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Leicester, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth.

Coady won respect from team-mates and Everton fans for his distribution and leadership both on and off the field, where younger colleagues dubbed him “dad” for his fatherly role in the squad.

But after Frank Lampard, the manager who signed him, made way for Sean Dyche in January, Coady soon lost his place, with Michael Keane and Yerry Mina returning to fitness and usurping the on-loan Wolves man in the Goodison Park pecking order.

Still, though, the messages coming out of Goodison suggested not keeping Coady was more down to finances than performances and that his influence at the club will be missed.

Coady’s future will be decided in the weeks and months ahead and will depend on multiple factors.

Will Lopetegui remain in charge at Wolves? If not, will a new boss have a different tactical plan that better suits the former captain?

Is Coady willing to sit on the bench? And will a club emerge with both the funds to do a deal and the need for a player of Coady’s profile?

It is possible Coady’s Wolves farewell lasted less than a year. If so, there is no character better equipped to handle a potentially tricky U-turn.

(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)