January 2022 Transfer Thread

[darlowolf64]

We’re getting away with it at the moment but as soon as Neves goes - which is as soon as someone offers 50m plus imo - things will start to unravel. We can’t keep refusing to spend money improve the team and keep finishing mid table.

Maybe if we start badly and find ourselves in trouble in January one season, that’s the time when Fosun will actually put their hand in their pocket to try and keep us up.

But then you end up in the Newcastle situation... Money to burn but very few who are decent will want to come for a relegation battle.
They need to sort things in the next summer window. (how long have we said that now?)

 

[Alan]

I can generally defend a lot of our transfer windows under Fosun, but if we go into tomorrow with just Neves/Moutinho/Donck/Cundle as our only CMs I will be flabbergasted.

 

[Johnny75]

I can generally defend a lot of our transfer windows under Fosun, but if we go into tomorrow with just Neves/Moutinho/Donck/Cundle as our only CMs I will be flabbergasted.

Why? We've been there all season and Fosun aren't investing into Wolves anymore.

I can't work out why people still believe they will.

 

[Del Woppio]

I can generally defend a lot of our transfer windows under Fosun, but if we go into tomorrow with just Neves/Moutinho/Donck/Cundle as our only CMs I will be flabbergasted.

Yo gaster gon get hella flabbered

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Without outside investment, and without having any more Mendes favours of the Jota/Neves/Jonny kind I see us only signing £3m gambles and selling our key investments when they reach maturity.

I wonder whether Fosun are considering their position with us and if they are looking at offloading, without serious investment this team is at the peak of where it will be.

 

[Carsy]

Pretty sure we won’t do any business today. Will be pleasantly surprised if we do.

However, how Burnley have announced their new striker on Twitter is definitely worth a watch.

 

[Carsy]

We obviously know that Sellars will pipe up I. A day or so with "January is never a good month for strategic strengthening and it was never going to be a busy month for us given the quality in the group".

This is now the 6th window in succession where we're no stronger at the end of it than we were at the start.

There's very little dissent about it at the moment, but that will change with the publication of the accounts in a month or so's time. I think summer '22 is going to be a crucial window for Fosun's standing amongst the fans. I think they're largely supported at the moment by the morons who don't understand FFP, and/or compare everything to when we were in league one. That won't last though

I’d say they’re largely supported by people due to the fact we have turned into a solid premier league club currently. That being said, they’re not perfect and support is tangible with performance on the pitch. If the performance abs positions define to decline then they won’t be supported.

Don’t think there’s anything ‘moronic’ about that.

I currently support Fosun. But do think they should’ve invested more recently etc etc.

 

[malta mick]

Having reached a better than expected position in the league so far, I find it strange that Fosun aren't prepared to bring at least 1 player in who will improve our first 11. If they are really serious about making us a top 6 team, then this would be an ideal opportunity.

 

[Jinky]

Pretty sure we won’t do any business today. Will be pleasantly surprised if we do.

However, how Burnley have announced their new striker on Twitter is definitely worth a watch.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1488104351897849856

 

[Tony Towner]

Why? We've been there all season and Fosun aren't investing into Wolves anymore.

I can't work out why people still believe they will.

It's weird isn't it? 8th in the league, in great form, genuine European opportunity, but it feels like trouble is just around the corner.
Small squad, getting smaller in terms of experience
Aging players in a couple of key positions (CM, CH & CF)
Best player likely to be off in the Summer
Lack of open leadership from the top
Fans treated as cash cows to milk

I don't expect Fosun to invest in us any further, I do expect them to invest profits beyond those which are generated from player sales though. As Del says the accounts will make for interesting reading

 

[Banjo]

Why? We've been there all season and Fosun aren't investing into Wolves anymore.

I can't work out why people still believe they will.

Indeed. I'm pretty certain it's a reaction to the Fosun group profit falling from £1.7bn in y/e 31.12.19 to £930m in y/e 31.12.20.

The interim position for 2021 (i.e. to June 2021) looks like an improvement on the previous year (£475m for the six month period) and, with the world opening up a little more until Omicron hit, there's hope that things will have improved even more July - November. However, it's still a lot lower than the £1.7bn of profit achieved in 2019.

Looking at revenue for the same period, the most significant losses in revenue were (unsurprisingly) in Fosun's "Happiness" sector, which the Wolves falls into (together with Club Med, Thomas Cook etc). This - in my view - is why we've had the plug pulled on transfers and ticket prices have gone up - we're being used to offset losses suffered by other entities in the same sector.

We can only hope that Fosun group finances begin to improve and that we see the benefit of that.

 

[Deano]

I’d say they’re largely supported by people due to the fact we have turned into a solid premier league club currently. That being said, they’re not perfect and support is tangible with performance on the pitch. If the performance abs positions define to decline then they won’t be supported.

Don’t think there’s anything ‘moronic’ about that.

I currently support Fosun. But do think they should’ve invested more recently etc etc.

They don't even need to dig into their own pockets. Just spend the money we have generated.

Luckily for them the start of this season has gone well and Bruno has done a good job outweighing what most people expected. This model wont be able to go on for very long though because you can't keep selling players and replace them with cheap gambles. When mid table becomes your ceiling - A. Mid table finishes get boring very quicky and B. it doesnt take much to go wrong from there to get relegated.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

I know this won't be universally popular on here - but we are victims of our own success, particularly the purchases of Neves, Moutinho and Raul. It would take serious money to buy someone better than those three and players of similar quality are going to have options elsewhere where they will get more time on the pitch. To replace Neves, we have to sell Neves. Moutinho is slightly different in that he is coming to the end of his career, but his form this season has been such that it would take a very good player to replace him...again, we are looking at to replace Moutinho, he would have to go too. It's the same with Raul - fit, he is always going to be first choice.

At this point, I wouldn't be looking at replacing any of these three players and if Wolves feel the same it limits our options to squad players content to sit on the bench or young players we can develop. We do quite a lot of business in the latter, very little on the former.

 

[Throbber3]

Without outside investment, and without having any more Mendes favours of the Jota/Neves/Jonny kind I see us only signing £3m gambles and selling our key investments when they reach maturity.

I wonder whether Fosun are considering their position with us and if they are looking at offloading, without serious investment this team is at the peak of where it will be.

For me Fosun have been playing roulette and betting red for 3 years and have been extremely lucky. Their accounts will show profit in March and then their excuses will be gone. There is only so much luck you can have with the zero investment self sufficient make a profit for your investors model. Sa is the only signing that has been a resounding success since Neto. It’s disappointing on the back of increased prices . But not surprising.

 

[Banjo]

They don't even need to dig into their own pockets. Just spend the money we have generated.

For the reasons I said above, I think there is more at play here than the amount of money being generated by the club. Only two of Fosuns's five sectors took a revenue hit during 2020, and Wolves sits in the one that took the biggest hit. Whether we are making money or not could well be irrelevant given the extent of the overall hit suffered by Fosun's "Happiness" sector.

 

[Alan]

Yo gaster gon get hella flabbered

Took ten years but someone finally spoke American to me.

 

[PuntsWolf]

I don't expect Fosun to invest in us any further, I do expect them to invest profits beyond those which are generated from player sales though. As Del says the accounts will make for interesting reading

And if there is no spend today, the Hwang and Trincao spends (if we do sign him), will go into the 21/22 accounts. So with the sales in the summer, increased ticket prices (although having the corner closed probably neutralises that), then it can surely only be another profit next year.

All preparing for the summer 22 and 23 splurges!

 

[PuntsWolf]

Indeed. I'm pretty certain it's a reaction to the Fosun group profit falling from £1.7bn in y/e 31.12.19 to £930m in y/e 31.12.20.

The interim position for 2021 (i.e. to June 2021) looks like an improvement on the previous year (£475m for the six month period) and, with the world opening up a little more until Omicron hit, there's hope that things will have improved even more July - November. However, it's still a lot lower than the £1.7bn of profit achieved in 2019.

Looking at revenue for the same period, the most significant losses in revenue were (unsurprisingly) in Fosun's "Happiness" sector, which the Wolves falls into (together with Club Med, Thomas Cook etc). This - in my view - is why we've had the plug pulled on transfers and ticket prices have gone up - we're being used to offset losses suffered by other entities in the same sector.

We can only hope that Fosun group finances begin to improve and that we see the benefit of that.

Wider Fosun will have no impact on wolves at all. They can’t take money without looking really bad, and it would be counterproductive anyway.

They weren’t investing even if they were making £10bn profit.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

I know this won't be universally popular on here - but we are victims of our own success, particularly the purchases of Neves, Moutinho and Raul. It would take serious money to buy someone better than those three and players of similar quality are going to have options elsewhere where they will get more time on the pitch. To replace Neves, we have to sell Neves. Moutinho is slightly different in that he is coming to the end of his career, but his form this season has been such that it would take a very good player to replace him...again, we are looking at to replace Moutinho, he would have to go too. It's the same with Raul - fit, he is always going to be first choice.

At this point, I wouldn't be looking at replacing any of these three players and if Wolves feel the same it limits our options to squad players content to sit on the bench or young players we can develop. We do quite a lot of business in the latter, very little on the former.

Good post and while I pretty much agree with all the first paragraph I think the 'task' for our recruitment team is not finding the young player prepared to sit on the bench or the mercenary/squad player prepared to do the same and just pick up a wage, but to identify and buy the player who believes he could supplement or replace Neves and Moutinho in the team. This will be about them having the ability and mental belief that they are good enough and selling them the idea that, if their performances justify, a first team place is possible.

We need he bolster [at an equivalent level] or improve CM, not just underpin it.

 

[Stan Hullis]

Someone like Vitinha maybe.

I'll forever be sad we didn't sign him last summer.