Morgan Gibbs-White: My journey

My dad tells me I started playing as soon as I could walk. Everywhere I went, I always had a football with me. Whether it was going to school with a football, going to the park with a football, or even at home in the living room, which my mum hated. I always had a football in my hand.

But I first started playing for a team when I was six or seven, a team called Stafford Juniors. After training a few times with the under-7s, I got pushed up a year and started playing for the under-8s.

After one season, I got pushed up again, so two years above. Around eight or nine, Wolves came in for me and I started playing there a year above, without realising that I should have been playing a year below. I was at Wolves for 13 to 14 years in the end and it was a good journey.

At Stafford Juniors, where I started my grassroots football, the main thing for me at that age was just enjoying football and not taking it too seriously. My dad made sure I enjoyed it. 

When you go into an academy, it becomes a little bit more serious which can be quite scary for a young kid. All you want to do is play, do your hobby, enjoy it and have fun.

I had a weird transition period when I was 13 or 14. I was very small and then had a massive growth spurt and struggled to deal with it. I was used to being small and tricky and then I had a massive growth spurt.

There was an Under-21 coach at Wolves at the time called Scott Sellars. He helped me out massively. He once told me, 'I'm never going to praise you when you're doing well, but when you're not doing good, I'm going to be onto you.' 

This approach encouraged me because I knew I was doing well when he wouldn't speak to me. When I wasn't doing well, he was always there to advise me, tell me what I was doing wrong and help me get better. 

It is a slightly weird way of approaching it but he helped me through that transition period.

Growing up at Wolves, my mantra was that my hard work would beat other people's talent. I always wanted to work hard, I wanted to run the most. 

It's crucial to believe in your ability and yourself, that you can achieve what you want to achieve.

It just depends on how much you want it. During the period when I was struggling, I was so eager to get better, so eager to play football every day. It urged me on and motivated me.

This drive and motivation have never changed; football is my life. I don't know what I'd do without it.

It's a case of definitely believing in yourself, having confidence and sometimes confidence is a hard thing to find in football. But I feel like when you have that in any young player, they can strive to be whatever they want to be.