Bruno Lage has laid out plans to make Morgan Gibbs-White a part of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ first team in conversations this week. Asked whether he will give Gibbs-White a chance to stake his claim in pre-season,
Bruno Lage replied: “He already knows that because I spoke with him in the last (few) days about that.”
Lage wanted Gibbs-White to return to Wolves in January and replace the outgoing Adama Traore in his first team squad. Having seen a similarly successful loan spell at Swansea City frustratingly cut short at the same point last year, Gibbs-White politely declined Lage’s invitation and finished the job at Bramall Lane.
Bruno Lage added: “I was very happy with Morgan. I will not treat him as a kid because now he’s a professional and he’s a man. When Hwang (Hee-chan) came he understood that maybe he didn’t have the space to play so he went on loan and did a fantastic job. In January I did everything to convince him to stay here. It was very clear and I gave him space and time to think about it. At the end of January we spoke and between him, Scott (Sellars) and me we decided he would go and finish the season there. After, we will see. If I want him in January, I continue to want him here because he can be an important player for the club. He’s one of the players that comes from the academy and I know it’s so important for the club to have that. I am a foreigner and we have a lot of foreign players but it’s important for the club to have players from the academy and born in the UK, because they love Wolves more than me because they grew up here. I am here just one year and love to be here but the way players like Morgan loves the club is in a different way.”
