Elliott Bennett learned how to be a footballer at Wolves. And put it into practice at Brighton. He will always be grateful for the times spent with both clubs, as Paul Berry discovers.
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Ask Elliott Bennett the reason for the success and longevity of a football career that came to a fitting conclusion on 600 appearances earlier this year, and the reply is unequivocal.
“For me, the biggest thing which stood out throughout my career, was to be the best version of me, every single day.
“To have a decent career you need a bit of talent, a lot of luck, the right timing but most importantly a lot of hard work.
“I have never been everyone’s cup of tea as a footballer, and my highlights reel would never be one which people would click on and think it was amazing.
“From a young age, I grasped what I was good at, what my best attributes were, and what I wasn’t so good at.
“Often now, whether you’re a footballer, or in another sport, or at school or a job, people always tell you to work on your weaknesses.
“I would do that a little bit, but I also think it’s so important not to get too caught up in what you are not good at.
“Not everyone can be super skilful, not everyone can be super-fast, the game requires 11 different players with different attributes to make it work as a team.
“I would recognise that I needed to be the best at what I was good at – whatever your special attribute is, try to be the best at it, and that should be enough to get you into a team.
“My Dad would always tell me that the only person staring at me when I got home at the end of the day was myself.
“Everyone has good games and bad games, but the one thing you can always control is how much effort you put into it, whether that’s a match or training.
“It was all about whether I had done enough, whether I could have done more, and being able to look back without any regrets.”
Such wise words. And there, in a nutshell, lie the foundations of the Elliott Bennett journey through football.
Granted there was much more involved, a greater amount of talent and technical ability that he would modestly attest to, a calmness under pressure, capacity to make more good decisions than bad ones, an excellence from set pieces.
But ultimately, a relentless attitude and ceaseless determination meant that even though he would have been happy with just making the two senior appearances enjoyed with Wolves after nearly a decade at the club’s Academy, he would go on and make 598 more.
Go on and win promotions, be named in a PFA Team of the Year, play – and score – in the Premier League, captain former Premier League winners, and finish it all off, in truly fitting fashion, at Shrewsbury Town, in the town of his birth.
In amongst that, not only is Bennett hugely appreciative of the footballing grounding he received during his many years coming through the ranks at Wolves, but also the two years spent at Saturday’s opponents Brighton which, having taken the initially difficult decision to move to the South Coast, ended up catapulting his career to greater heights.
Subscribers to the Express & Star can read the full feature here – https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2024/10/24/how-wolves-helped-elliott-bennett-forge-a-long-and-fine-career/
