There goes Julen!

[C.L.D]

Just replacing Shi with someone who can appoint someone to run all the football ops would be enough.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Sell Neves, Nunes and Semedo for £100m gives plenty of room.

On paper that works. Neves £45m ish the most nailed on (but not guaranteed). But who is paying £40m for Nunes? Who is paying £15m for Semedo? Can’t see an English club being interested, too expensive for Portugal, Atlético maybe with Mendes influence,but a lot of money for a backup, Italian clubs don’t have any money and have RBs already.

But £50m seems such an arbitrary number, surely that's a sale number where the can get out. The fact Fosun have failed to get investment tells me more about them wanting other peoples money but retaining control. That never ends well. They should just sell up and fuck off.

Agreed. If they honestly think we can be “self sustaining long term and progress they need their heads checking. They’ve nearly got us relegated after having put the money in. Other teams are either the big 6/7, owners putting in the max cash, very well run with good scouting network or fodder who will go down at some point.

A team throwing money at (and wasting) a super agent whilst not putting in the required cash to keep up with others, will go down.

 

[Deano]

Not sure if the Cunha deal is done, I know there was a report that it was going to be automatically triggered after a few appearances but not seen anything official on it. If there is any way they can get out of it they should. I quite like him as a player but it's not worth it and in an ideal world we could negotiate a lower fee, nobody else is paying 40m plus for him.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Not sure if the Cunha deal is done, I know there was a report that it was going to be automatically triggered after a few appearances but not seen anything official on it. If there is any way they can get out of it they should. I quite like him as a player but it's not worth it and in an ideal world we could negotiate a lower fee, nobody else is paying 40m plus for him.

Yeah, sadly I don't think there is a way to back out but I would if I could (or at least dramatically renegotiate the fee). He isn't currently worth close to what was agreed, as much as I like his character and can see that he's got some ability.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Not sure if the Cunha deal is done, I know there was a report that it was going to be automatically triggered after a few appearances but not seen anything official on it. If there is any way they can get out of it they should. I quite like him as a player but it's not worth it and in an ideal world we could negotiate a lower fee, nobody else is paying 40m plus for him.

He's nowhere near a £40m player. He'd be decent for around £18-20m probably. We were completely fleeced on that one, not for the first time.

 

[Dire Wolf]

On the overpaying for transfer fees issue though, Jeff can't really win. We overpay to make sure we get a player and he's deservedly criticised. We don't overpay and stick to our guns on fees and miss out on a player and he's criticised. Problem seems to me is that Jeff just isn't very good at the whole negotiating thing.

 

[Templeton Peck]

We could get some decent money in for Sa and Kilman. There's a perception that they're good players. The Doherty effect if you will.

 

[Johnny75]

He's nowhere near a £40m player. He'd be decent for around £18-20m probably. We were completely fleeced on that one, not for the first time.

And then Fosun tell Lop they have to make £50m.

They've wasted twice that in the last 3 seasons. They've just shit at owning and running a football club.

 

[Tony Towner]

On paper that works. Neves £45m ish the most nailed on (but not guaranteed). But who is paying £40m for Nunes? Who is paying £15m for Semedo? Can’t see an English club being interested, too expensive for Portugal, Atlético maybe with Mendes influence,but a lot of money for a backup, Italian clubs don’t have any money and have RBs already.

Agreed. If they honestly think we can be “self sustaining long term and progress they need their heads checking. They’ve nearly got us relegated after having put the money in. Other teams are either the big 6/7, owners putting in the max cash, very well run with good scouting network or fodder who will go down at some point.

A team throwing money at (and wasting) a super agent whilst not putting in the required cash to keep up with others, will go down.

More like £75m imo unless there's a Mendes fiddle in their somewhere. £30m a piece for Neves and Nunes and £15m for Semedo.

Unless there's a bidding war which seems unlikely who is giving us £45m for Neves when we've made it clear we have to sell him, with the same Mendes caveat?

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Like Johnny said, they just got lucky with a special manager.

It is an odd one, first time in 50 years we’re playing a sixth consecutive season in the top flight. But they’re clearly not actually that good at running the club.

I don't think it's so much about luck or Nuno being extra special, more about comparative success.

When Fosun first took over that Gestifute/Mendes link was a real boon, how many middle of the road Championship clubs have ever had the world's most influential agent on speed dial? You look at Wolves' standing at the time compared to the others in Mendes' circle of influence and it was going to be difficult to pick up many duds in the early stages of the journey.

There was no doubt an element of good fortune in how well that squad and manager were suited to one another, the largely stagnant squad development even through the good times shows that even Nuno wasn't turning water into wine with some of the haphazard recruitment. He generally had a core squad that worked for him through that spell, new signings struggled to force their way in and the success quickly ebbed away with a few outgoings.

Once Wolves had been elevated to a solid Premier League position the benefit of that Gestifute relationship has been diluted. The natural draw of that level of competition and the money that comes with it does most of the work in attracting top talent without that agent power, if anything at times it's been a hindrance limiting the pool that Wolves have looked in. Wolves are now just another club in Mendes' circle, no longer weak enough that any cast off improves them nor good enough to skim the cream of the talent from the rest.

They need a new plan, a new angle to give them an edge that others don't have.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

On the overpaying for transfer fees issue though, Jeff can't really win. We overpay to make sure we get a player and he's deservedly criticised. We don't overpay and stick to our guns on fees and miss out on a player and he's criticised. Problem seems to me is that Jeff just isn't very good at the whole negotiating thing.

I think it sticks out because the misses are so bad.

I mean, I quite like Semedo. Prone to 2-3 shockers a season but he's generally a pretty good defender. But...he was directly replacing Doherty. Who as we all know, is fucking wank but had this strange role for us where he provided quite a lot in an attacking sense. Most of us would have accepted a small drop off going forward in exchange for a much better defender. Not a total absence of any attacking output. And not paying £12m over Doherty's headline fee that Spurs paid (that we didn't even get, as chunks went straight to Bohemians and Gestifute), on probably double the wages.

And he's far from the outstanding example. I bang on about him but it was so obvious to anyone who'd watched Guedes that he was awful. For multiple teams over multiple years he looked dreadful. We still did it, not in an area where we were desperate to get numbers in, when he didn't even want to come. Consequently wiping out one of the few big profit for FFP deals we got on MGW in the process.

Three years after we signed Fabio for £35m (!) we still don't know if he's a viable Premier League forward at all, let alone being able to put a number on how many goals he might get next season.

It's haphazard and if they're so averse to waste then start bloody watching players properly before you sign them FFS.

 

[Dire Wolf]

What we need as a club and what we definitely don't appear to have, is a coherent strategy for signing and developing players, that fits with a system of play. That is probably what Lop wants, but what he gets is a scattergun approach to recruitment that turns off and on like a tap at the whim of the ownership. This way disaster eventually lies.

 

[Langers]

What we need as a club and what we definitely don't appear to have, is a coherent strategy for signing and developing players, that fits with a system of play. That is probably what Lop wants, but what he gets is a scattergun approach to recruitment that turns off and on like a tap at the whim of the ownership. This way disaster eventually lies.

This is why I think Gomes is such a good signing. Not an outrageous fee, young, clearly huge potential, properly scouted him, good character.

If we used this approach more, we'd be a far better team for it.

 

[YoungWolf]

I don't think it's so much about luck or Nuno being extra special, more about comparative success.

When Fosun first took over that Gestifute/Mendes link was a real boon, how many middle of the road Championship clubs have ever had the world's most influential agent on speed dial? You look at Wolves' standing at the time compared to the others in Mendes' circle of influence and it was going to be difficult to pick up many duds in the early stages of the journey.

There was no doubt an element of good fortune in how well that squad and manager were suited to one another, the largely stagnant squad development even through the good times shows that even Nuno wasn't turning water into wine with some of the haphazard recruitment. He generally had a core squad that worked for him through that spell, new signings struggled to force their way in and the success quickly ebbed away with a few outgoings.

Once Wolves had been elevated to a solid Premier League position the benefit of that Gestifute relationship has been diluted. The natural draw of that level of competition and the money that comes with it does most of the work in attracting top talent without that agent power, if anything at times it's been a hindrance limiting the pool that Wolves have looked in. Wolves are now just another club in Mendes' circle, no longer weak enough that any cast off improves them nor good enough to skim the cream of the talent from the rest.

They need a new plan, a new angle to give them an edge that others don't have.

That’s fine, I agree with most of that but Nuno took us from 15th in the Championship to a Europa league quarter finals within 3 seasons (and we were a properly good team), let’s not pretend many other managers would have done the same.

 

[Tony Towner]

What we need as a club and what we definitely don't appear to have, is a coherent strategy for signing and developing players, that fits with a system of play. That is probably what Lop wants, but what he gets is a scattergun approach to recruitment that turns off and on like a tap at the whim of the ownership. This way disaster eventually lies.

If you take a step back to this time last year, if Fosun said in the next 3 windows we are going to have a net spend of over £100m, which is about what it would be with a £50m profit this Summer, we'd all have snapped their hands off. It's doing it as 2 disconnected strategies which is unlikely to work.

 

[prawnking]

That’s fine, I agree with most of that but Nuno took us from 15th in the Championship to a Europa league quarter finals within 3 seasons (and we were a properly good team), let’s not pretend many other managers would have done the same.

If Nuno isn't extra special then no manager or player we've had in my lifetime is (and I say that as someone who still criticised him plenty)

 

[YoungWolf]

If Nuno isn't extra special then no manager or player we've had in my lifetime is (and I say that as someone who still criticised him plenty)

Exactly. I just have to block out post covid because that just isn’t the same person to me!

 

[Dire Wolf]

Exactly. I just have to block out post covid because that just isn’t the same person to me!

I don't think he ever had the same passion after the horrific injury to Raul. I get the feeling it deeply affected him.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

That’s fine, I agree with most of that but Nuno took us from 15th in the Championship to a Europa league quarter finals within 3 seasons (and we were a properly good team), let’s not pretend many other managers would have done the same.

It's not like it's a level of success that's unmatched though is it? Swansea managed similar with far less financial backing from memory. Nuno did a good job, many others have done too.

 

[Walnut]

What was brilliant about Nuno was his rapport with the fans. He loved it at Wolves. It went sour when Jeff wouldn't back him on transfers, and he was told either suck it up or leave.