Ask Wolves

[Derby Wolf]

Absolute bollocks from Vinny and Jeff Shi. Fucking shite.

Slagging off the fans in the ground as not being on the same page as the board as we want more success on the pitch and don't give a fucking shit about eSports. Fuck off.

Vinny "debunking" the Leicester price comparison takes a grand total of 1 minute checking the 2022/2023 offer on the Leicester club website to be shown up as complete nonsense. Every single ticket in the ends at the King Power is cheaper than we are offering for tickets in the South and North Banks. Bar hospitality there is not a single ticket in the King Power more expensive than our most expensive standard ticket of £786. Stop lying Vinny.

To add, Leicester's increase this year is their first in 8 years. Even after winning the league they didn't increase.

 

[Tony Towner]

A float of WWFC is a surprising revelation. I assume that would be in the UK which means they’ll have to adhere to a lot of governance rules and be more transparent. It’ll also restrict the “financial massaging” they can do in relation to the accounts.

I guess that is a move to try “Americanize” the club and open up another potential method of fundraising but I am not sure there will be deep enough pockets for anything meaningful to come out of share sales (eg I think Green Bay Packers did a stock sale to fund / try fund stadium improvements - see here if curious: https://www.packers.com/news/packers-sixth-stock-sale-nearing-end)

It's not WWFC they'd be floating it's Fosun Sports Group of which the football club is an element. The Packers are the only NFL side run that way. All the rest are Billionaire owners

 

[AndyWolves]

This bit caught my eye

JP: The club has also taken out bank loans during your ownership, why has that been necessary?

JS: I think it’s a common practice for every club, because it’s good to have the power to have a loan, because for every bank if you convince them to lend some money to us, they feel it can provide safety to them. For the Premier League clubs, we have a strong cash flow from TV broadcasting, we have a strong brand, so it means we have the power to convince a lot of banks that they’re okay to lend the money to us. Actually, it’s an advantage to us. For example, like Man United, if you’re listed, you have a better advantage because you have a better leverage to attract different lenders, so they will have a higher debt and also with a lower interest. But for us we’re just doing the same as other clubs are doing and it’s not so special




I get that if you can borrow money for less than your ROI that's a good thing, we aren't doing that though. He doesn't say why the loan was needed, just that it's good to have the power to take out a loan, like that's the only reason!

 

[Aikiwolf]

Jeff is so out of touch its unbelievable. I totally "get" the diversification and additional revenue strands. I even "get" the esports piece BUT all of this diversification relies on having and exciting and competitive 1st team.

All of our increased brand exposure is from being a reasonably competitive PL club. And that needs quality players. Replace Neves and Moutinho with Cundle and Dendoncker and our performances are likely to be far worse AND we've lost 2 big names (so impact on brand exposure).

Then chuck in Vinny lying about Leicester season tickets and it's a bleak picture.

 

[YoungWolf]

The Sellars one is also a waste of time. Quite disappointed by him as I’ve heard he’s a strong character but I guess he’s paid well enough to just accept the situation

The loans one although very short is okay as you can tell there’s a decent thought process behind what they do

 

[Carrotdude]

As I (we?) suspected we are now in a hiatus until we are relegated. E-sports and sub standard Asian players are what interests the owners not entertaining football for legacy fans.

Fosun have turned into the dreadful owners we assumed they would be.

Out of light cometh darkness.

Unfortunately this is the best summary of our current position I’ve seen

 

[AndyWolves]

If they sell us after we've been relegated they'd lose a big chunk of money.

I also wonder what fosun would do with the eSports, clothing, music etc. I.e. would fosun sell FSG or just the club? And if it's just the club then what happens to our logo etc? As I think the copyright is owned by FSG.

FSG = fosun Sports group

 

[Lupo]

Manbet are toast. Bruno isn't. Jeff doesn't give much of a shit about fans who live within 2,000 miles of Molineux

 

[Aikiwolf]

If they sell us after we've been relegated they'd lose a big chunk of money.

I also wonder what fosun would do with the eSports, clothing, music etc. I.e. would fosun sell FSG or just the club? And if it's just the club then what happens to our logo etc? As I think the copyright is owned by FSG.

FSG = fosun Sports group

Wolves are an asset of FSG. So I think Fosun could do either, depending on what gave them a better roi.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

If they separate the football team from its own iconic logo that would be appalling.

 

[Lupo]

With him [points to Hwang Hee-Chan], I talk in Korean, because he understands what I’m saying. He is a good professional, he’s still here, recovering, so I’m very happy with him, very happy with him, and he offered me cookies last week so I’m more than happy with him [laughs]

 

[The Bion]

That did cross my mind. They have been more interested in the brand than the club for a while now - might be hysterical overreacting but I don't think it can be completely ruled out, which is worrying enough in itself.

 

[AndyWolves]

I think, for now anyway, there isn't really a brand without the club so it's a moot point. If fosun wanted to sell wolves they probably wouldn't want to put off buyers by saying "you don't get to use the logo / brand though as that's ours!"

If what fosun want comes to fruition(!), then in fosuns eyes, separating the club from the badge might be necessary if they decided to sell the club.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I think it’s an interesting question because that’s the point of every manager, to try to find a way to play, to show our strengths and hide our weaknesses. But we need to have the philosophy if you lose the ball in two or three passes, after, we’re defending for more time, and if you’re defending for more time, if you’re nearer the box and you’re playing against these top teams, then they can create a chance from anywhere and they can score a goal. That’s one thing. Okay, after our first transfer window it was clear what was the group of players. We worked all season with 14, 15 players, because we had important players like Neto, Boly out, so we worked with 14, 15 players during the season and we tried to find a way to do that: to show our strengths and to hide a little bit our weaknesses. I think after one year it’s clearer for me what we can do, what is the next step, and the next step is going to be very hard, because, as you know, some of the players are at the end of contracts and they may leave the club. Some of the players the club are trying to find the best agreement to renew their contracts. So if the players go, we need the same quality of players to replace them and we need, in my opinion, two or three more players because, if it happens next season what happened in these two or three months, we won’t have the players to manage the squad to stay at the same level, so that’s the target for our next window.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Just watched the Shi episode.

Absolutely, thoroughly depressing.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

"It's difficult to get people from Asia to support Wolves, so you need to give them some emotional attachment"

I'm more certain than ever that Lage has been pushed to play Hwang, and he's fully on board as his comments about Hwang suggest, the players reaction to Hwang muffing up keeping the ball in against Liverpool show they know it too.

 

[The Bion]

Man Utd managed to get plenty of Asian fans. They did it by winning things, not tokenism.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Man Utd managed to get plenty of Asian fans. They did it by winning things, not tokenism.

Not easy to replicate United's trophy haul though is it, they were fortunate enough to be top dogs when the PL really went big in the Asian market.

 

[Banjo]

In China, Korea is considered the pinnacle of 'cool'. If something is trending in Korea, China (and lots of Asian countries) will lap it up. I've no doubt that Lage is under pressure to keep Hwang involved to the detriment of others. Hwang's SM output often completely contradicts the result or performance (team or individual) of the match that has just taken place - it's all about engagement of the international fan who probably didn't even watch the game that just happened.

It's all very unsettling - that Shi interview was bitterly disappointing for anyone whose sole interest in the Wolves is the performance of the team on the pitch. It's as if that has become an after-thought. The only thing I can cling to is that the global "brand" must, surely, rely on the first team staying in the PL. It seems as though we'll be mid-table at best for the foreseeable - it's what informed the appointment of this manager and the attitude to recruitment since the Silva/Semedo window (when I can only assume the strategy was different).

 

[Tony Towner]

C

In China, Korea is considered the pinnacle of 'cool'. If something is trending in Korea, China (and lots of Asian countries) will lap it up. I've no doubt that Lage is under pressure to keep Hwang involved to the detriment of others. Hwang's SM output often completely contradicts the result or performance (team or individual) of the match that has just taken place - it's all about engagement of the international fan who probably didn't even watch the game that just happened.

It's all very unsettling - that Shi interview was bitterly disappointing for anyone whose sole interest in the Wolves is the performance of the team on the pitch. It's as if that has become an after-thought. The only thing I can cling to is that the global "brand" must, surely, rely on the first team staying in the PL. It seems as though we'll be mid-table at best for the foreseeable - it's what informed the appointment of this manager and the attitude to recruitment since the Silva/Semedo window (when I can only assume the strategy was different).

Yep he's gone from Hubris Jeff to I don't really give a fuck what you lot think Jeff