Captain fantastic knows Black Country Derby stakes better than anyone
Jed Wallace has only been at Albion for 18 months but the club captain is all too aware of the significance of the Black Country derby.
The 29-year-old is – as Carlos Corberan described him – a captain without needing the armband at The Hawthorns and is an influential figure among the squad and staff.
But Wallace hasn’t needed the club’s training base in Walsall to be hit with Wolves FA Cup excitement, as he is feeling it in everyday life.
Be it at the petrol station, or at the gates dropping the elder two of his three sons off at school, Wallace – briefly a Molineux man – has the importance drummed into him.
“When I left Millwall (in summer, 2022) it was something I decided that wherever I went I wanted to sort of move to the area,” Wallace said.
“At the time my oldest boy was starting school so it was a case of where we moved to we wanted to go as a family and buy into the local area. There’s a few Baggies fans at the school gate that I speak to and you start to appreciate what it means.
“Literally in the petrol station on Thursday a guy jumped out of his van and said ‘you have got to do it on Sunday’ and I was like ‘yeah, just let me fill my car up mate, I will try my best!’ I am sure it has been the same for the Wolves players this week and a lot of the other lads. That’s what football is about.
“There’s a lot of pent-up excitement, aggression, probably a few other things as well. When you grow up as a kid these are the games you want to play and even for my dad these are the games you want to watch. We certainly won’t lack any motivation.”
Two years at Wolves was a fairly complicated part of an otherwise extremely enjoyable career for Wallace, who otherwise likes to lay down his roots.
After non-league spells at Carshalton, Farnborough and Lewes as a teen, the winger spent four years at Portsmouth before he headed for the West Midlands and Wolverhampton.
It didn’t work out, Wolves were going through change. Wallace was farmed out to two Millwall loans before south east London became his permanent home, totalling seven seasons, which including two runs to the FA Cup quarter-final – one that ended in stoppage-time heartbreak as Brighton levelled before the Seagulls won on penalties.
It’s a very different Wolves to the one Wallace knew. He calls that period a “stop gap”. Only Matt Doherty, who returned, is still around from his time, though third-choice goalkeeper Tom King is a godfather to one of the Baggies skipper’s sons.
He said: “I have been lucky I have played for four clubs, Portsmouth, Millwall, West Brom where I feel I have had a massive affiliation with all three, been a massive part of my life and ones I have always looked back on with that natural affiliation.
“Whereas Wolves it just kind of felt like a stop gap for my career. There were new owners, when I needed to play well I didn’t really, a couple of injuries, they went the way they went. It probably happens to a lot of players at a lot of clubs where it just didn’t really feel part of my journey.”
Wallace scored one League Cup goal in 24 Wolves appearances. He recently passed 500 professional career games, and 75 already for Albion.
“I would say I probably had a little toe in the Wolves camp,” he added of those tow years from 2015. “It is nearly 10 years ago now. I stepped up from Portsmouth to go there and that’s football. A couple of average performances from me and the changes that were going on at the club at the time, it probably felt like it wasn’t even part of my career to be honest. I was there for a little while, it didn’t really work out for me, the club has gone on and had a lot of success and I have rebuilt my career and am here now.”
Jed and wife Abbie are very settled at their home in Knowle, particularly with two of their children at school in nearby Solihull. The couple are even looking forward to the possibility of laying down long-term roots post football in the area.
The winger’s eldest son Luca, who is five, is getting into football and watches his dad at matches and is now showing signs of a keener interest. Younger brothers Noah and Charlie could follow the same path. The Wallaces are a tight family unit and grandad Phil, Jed’s dad, is the winger’s biggest supporter and continues to follow his son and the Baggies the length and breadth of the country.
The 29-year-old admitted becoming club captain of Albion over the summer was the proudest moment of his career and that his dad was looking forward to tomorrow’s derby drama.
