Written by
Simon Austin
December 1, 2025
Jon Hunter-Barrett has performed a u-turn and will be staying on at Wolves – little more than a month after it was announced that he would be leaving to become Academy Director at Rangers.
At the end of October, TGG reported that Hunter-Barrett was leaving Wolves after 14-and-a-half years to join the Scottish giants. His official start date was not until January 3rd 2026, but he had been in a transition phase, laying out his plans for the role and for the Academy.
However, following changes in the sporting structure at both Wolves and Rangers, Hunter-Barrett has now decided to remain with the Midlands club and the Scottish side have agreed to allow him to do this.
On the one hand, there has been massive upheaval at Rangers, with the club last week announcing that Chief Executive Patrick Stewart and Sporting Director Kevin Thelwell had both been sacked.
Thelwell had been integral in bringing Hunter-Barrett north of the border, with the duo having worked together at Wolves. In fact Thelwell had been Academy Manager at Molineux when Hunter-Barrett was first recruited, in May 2011.
Meanwhile, Wolves have made a couple of key appointments that have strengthened their stability behind the scenes. First, Rob Edwards joined as Head Coach, before Matt Jackson was promoted from Director of Player Recruitment and Development to Technical Director.
Now Hunter-Barrett has been able to ‘return’ to Wolves in a beefed-up Academy Director role (he was previously Academy Manager – Football) and resume what had been a productive partnership with Jackson.
Gretar Steinsson, Technical Director for 49ers Enterprises, who own Rangers, is leading the search for a new Sporting Director and Academy Director at the Scottish side.
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