Wolves have confirmed that they have agreed a new long term contract with teenage starlet Ryan Giles after emerging from the youth system to become a fringe figure for the first team under Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Molineux outfit revealed on their official Twitter account and website that the forward had agreed a four-year deal, having been a part of the club for over a decade as a youngster growing up.
Wolves are pleased to confirm that Ryan Giles has committed his future to the club, signing a new four-year contract. Congratulations, @ryangiles7.
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 6, 2018
The 18-year-old winger was part of the under-18 side heading into pre-season but was taken to the next level by the Portuguese boss, training with the senior squad and joining them on their trip to Switzerland.
This season has seen him make the step up not only as a regular for the reserve side but as backup for the first team, with two unused substitute appearances in the League Cup.
Opinion
Wolves might have established a reputation of spending big on foreign talents but this deal shows that they are not forgetting about the homegrown starlets that they have at Molineux. Four years is a seriously long contract to hand out to an 18-year-old with no first team experience and it shows just how highly they rate him that they are willing to commit him to such terms. He faces a huge battle to make that step up from fringe figure to first team feature, but he just needs to look at how Morgan Gibbs-White has achieved his rise through the ranks, despite facing competition from the likes of Portuguese internationals Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves. It might will be argued that Giles has an easier path into the first team, with not as much quality stopping him from picking up game time, but while he might have picked up a new contract, he cannot afford to rest on his laurels now. This is the time for him to push on and prove he is worthy of the club’s faith – otherwise he might not see out the end of his newly-penned deal.