Scott Sellars keen for Wolves to play in EFL Trophy again

Wolves reached the last 16 of the competition before losing out to Swansea City’s academy but saw the likes of Connor Ronan and Morgan Gibbs-White handed their first-team debuts thanks to their performances in the under-23s, writes Charlie Malam.

But the controversial pilot came under widespread criticism for some of its rules, one of which saw Luton Town fined £15,000 for fielding too many youngsters despite winning two of three group stage games to finishing second in their group.

In a meeting last month to decide the Checkatrade’s future, EFL chief Shaun Harvey proposed loosening the rule that states an EFL club must field at least five players who started the previous or following game.

And Sellars says he has no problems with alterations as long as the competition retains invited under-23s teams.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to have B teams in this country, it’s not going to happen,” he said. “We’ve got hundreds of years of history of football clubs.

“We’ve got more than 100 professional football clubs when you go down into the Conference and Conference North so there’s good history there and I don’t think it should ever be changed.

“But I think we also have to ask our questions, ‘How are we going to make our younger players better? How are we going to develop them?’

“If the Checkatrade has been successful and we’re saying as development coaches that it’s successful, with our manager saying ‘This has been fantastic’, then obviously I think it’s something that should be carried on.

“Now whether they want to rejig it in another way and say ‘this bit has worked, this bit hasn’t worked’ then I haven’t got a problem with that. I just think it needs to be a part of the programme.

“I don’t think lower league clubs should be punished for playing younger players. It should be an opportunity for them to play younger players as well. It’s their football club and their choice.

“Ultimately whether it’s the Johnstone’s Paint, the Checkatrade or whatever, it’s never ever been a big competition until you get to the semi-finals, or regional finals, and then obviously the final is a big game. It’s never been a massive competition.

“I understand the gates are down but I think that has been a lot of people just jumping on the bandwagon and thinking ‘Let’s follow what everyone else is saying’.”

And Sellars is also confident that the Checkatrade is the right first step in the search to provide young English talent with more competitive football.

“The long-term bit of it is that some of our players might not make it at Wolves but they might be playing in someone else’s first-team, at maybe a League One or League Two club,” the 51-year-old added.

“I understand the negative aspect about it but we have to recognise that after every European Championship or World Cup, we’ll complain about the lack of quality or competition or question how good we are as a team and why we’ve gone out again in the early stages.

“As development coaches we’re looking for more competition that is realistic.

“I don’t think there should be B teams in this country but I also recognise that we have to help develop our players together to make sure that they’re better.

“We’ll moan for two weeks after a competition at the end of the year but after about four weeks nobody really cares. I think we have to start caring.

“The Checkatrade is a good benchmark for our young players playing against professionals, it was a real clear indication of where they were at.

“Sometimes in under-23 games, they’re playing against players the same age – 18 or 19 with no experience – so you might say ‘Yeah I can see his potential, but how good is he? I don’t really know’.

“Then all of a sudden you see him playing against players who have played 400 league games and then you’re going ‘Actually he can do it at that level’. That gives me a clear indication that he’s ready to step up.”

Former winger Sellars, who enjoyed spells with Leeds, Blackburn, Newcastle and Bolton, believes that relaxing the rules makes more sense than solely favouring youngsters of Premier League clubs.

He continued: “I think if you look at the England team, not every England player has come through the development of a Premier League club or a big club.

“They’ve all come through different areas; John Stones came from Barnsley, Danny Rose from Leeds, I was at Sheffield United with Kyle Walker.

“These are not Category One clubs but these are England players. England players will come from everywhere, they always will.

“If it was just about facilities and leagues then every player who played for England would come from Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton, but they don’t.

“We’ve got to have other opportunities for everybody, it can’t just be inclusive of Category One academies.”