And Jorge Mendes is still in the middle.
“Football is a lie” repeated Rafa Benitez grinning during one of the many press conferences at the time of Napoli, which have become iconic due to the constant provocations between the local media and the Spanish coach, in his second experience in Italy after the unsuccessful one at Inter post triplet. An expression that seems to have been taken a little too literally by Jeff Shiowner of the Wolverhampton Wanderersseparated from Julen Lopetegui officially due to differences of opinion on the club’s growth strategies, unofficially due to alleged omissions on the poor state of finances.
However, before delving into the recent dynamics of the Wolves it is necessary to give a blow to the pinwheel of time and go back not to save Sirius Black from the Dementor’s kiss, but to retrace the steps of the West Midlands club from the acquisition of the Fosun group to the present day .
Small spoiler: the villain of this story is not Lord Voldemort, but someone who would have had no trouble making his way in the Slytherin house.
The arrival of the Fosun group
In the summer of 2016 the billionaire Guo Guanchang, head of the Chinese conglomerate Fosun and owner of 20% of Gestifute, buys the majority shares of Wolverhampton, at the time settled on the right side of the Championship table after the double relegation from the Premier to League One and following return to the cadet series. The investment, driven personally by jorge mendeswho is the founder of Gestifute and a point of reference for international relations, was to be considered as part of Fosun’s expansion plan in Europe (which will take place massively during the pandemic) and the agency’s desire to create channels between football European and Asian.
The first year of the new management is disastrous: the club invests fifty million pounds, changes three coaches – one of these is Walter Zenga – and in the end gets nothing more than a 15th place and a relatively quiet salvation. For the following year, the management immediately decided to further raise the stakes by hiring Nuno Espirito Santo – who in past years had managed Rio Ave, Valencia and Porto, as well as being one of Mendes’ very first assistants as a player – as a coach and by buying the youngster Ruben Neves from the Port.
Specifically, Neves is an impressive signing: at the time of his transfer he can already boast many appearances for Portugal and the dragons of Porto, even at Champions League level. In the spring of 2018, the massive investments of the Fosun group came to pay: Wolverhampton returned to the Premier League for the first time in 6 years, collecting hundreds of millions of TV rights to the championship.
In the following three years, the Wolves will register a tenth and two seventh places, a quarter-final in the Europa League and a turnover of over 400 million euros between arrivals and departures. Among the operations worthy of mention are the 18 million spent on Rui Patricioand 14 per Diogo Jota or the over 40 per head for Raul Jimenez, Fábio Silva and Matheus Nunes: all these signings have involved clubs that with Mendes have preferential channels (Atletico Madrid) and the trio of Portugal’s greats (Porto, Benfica and Sporting). Even more disturbing is the double pass made by Braga, Lazio and Wolverhampton himself with Pedro Neto and Bruno Jordao: borrowed from the biancocelesti, redeemed for around 16 million euros and then resold after a month to the Wolveswhich still holds the cards, almost double.
To rely heavily on Mendes is a mode of operation characteristic of Wolverhampton. The Portuguese prosecutor also provided the Wolves Bruno Lage, Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor when he moved to Tottenham – who had recently fired Mourinho and abandoned negotiations with Gattuso and Paulo Fonseca, curiously all assisted by Mendes. Lage, who also came from a negative experience at Benfica, immediately showed himself up to the task, reaching tenth place on his debut in the Premier League but ending up being fired at the beginning of October 2022 after a win in the last fifteen games and several quarrels with the his players.
The arrival of Lopetegui
In an atmosphere of skepticism and dissatisfaction, to be convinced to accept come on Wolvesafter a month-long courtship, is Julen Lopetegui, once again assisted by Mendes, in the odor of Manchester United first and then Bayern Munich and fresh from his exemption from Sevilla, with whom he had won the 2019/20 edition of the Europa League by beating Inter in the final. “I am happy to coach in the Premier League. I strongly believe in this project. The management and I are convinced that we can reverse course and build a bright future for this club“, he declares Lopetegui in the press release with which Jeff Shi announces his arrival.
Promises kept? Yes. Wolverhampton revolutionizes the team in the January market: the sales of Fabio Silva and Gonçalo Guedes free up the places, among others, for the former Juventus player Mario Lemina and the expert central defender Craig Dawson. Above all, Lopetegui embraces his pupil again Pablo Sarabia and manages to snatch a loan with an obligation to buy from Atletico Madrid Matheus Cunhawhich became the most expensive signing in the club’s history in summer 2023.
The movements give the coach material necessary to find tactical stability, work on a compact 4-4-2 and bring the boat out of the stormy currents of the fight for salvation, finishing with a good thirteenth place and slipping seven victories in the second round with as many clean sheets.
However, the hopes of a quiet summer of intense work and programming soon faded, first at a press conference and then by releasing an unauthorized interview on journalist Guillem Balague’s podcast. Lopetegui shakes the walls of the Molineaux offices and throws Wolverhampton’s dire situation into the news for the press and fans:
“I had a meeting with management and was made aware of issues with Financial Fair Play that I didn’t know existed. We are unable to pursue the set goals. The transfer team, headed by director Matt Hobbs, is doing a great job but we don’t have the funds to complete the signings“
However, it seems that the financial health of the club is not as disastrous as declared. Rather it is suspected that the leaders of the Fosun have called Jeff Shi, their own representative, to review the economic strategy that led i Wolves to spend exaggerated amounts for incoming players (including the 50 million euros used to buy Cunha or the 30 spent to buy Guedes, promptly discharged after a few months) without worrying about making any profit. In the summer the club entered only one player, Matt DohertyIrish winger, returning after two difficult years with Tottenham and Atletico, in the face of various transfers – above all that of captain Ruben Neves to Al Hilal – which brought over 100 million to the club’s coffers and about 20 million wages spared from the missed renewals of Diego Costa, Joao Moutinho and Adama Traore. In a nutshell, the conglomerate has turned off the taps and does not intend to reopen them until the investment stops being a lost fund and starts making the profits necessary to cover the losses of the rest of the Fosun group, which is in big trouble after the pandemic.
A situation that made the coach impatient, already on the verge of changing the bench after being approached by a couple of clubs Saudi Pro League. The lack of clarity on the present and future strategies of the club and in general the few investments made cracked the relationship, considered irrecoverable four days after their debut in the Premier League at Old Trafford against Manchester United, when, with a note on their official website, the club informed the fans that they have reached an agreement to terminate Lopetegui’s contract.
The club and Julen Lopetegui have reached an agreement to part ways, ending his nine month stay as head coach.
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 8, 2023
He settled in on the bench in Manchester Gary O’Neil, a former Bournemouth manager who has been contracted for three years and called to face the thick storm. On the pitch he fared well, proposing an aggressive Wolverhampton who gave a hard time to the Red Devils by ten Hag, victorious only thanks to the goring of Varane and a sensational penalty in the final which was not granted to the guests due to a clumsy foul committed by Onana. How the situation will evolve on the incoming market front is not yet known: in the post-match on Monday Night, even the former midfielder of Boro and Portsmouth were keen to reiterate that the team”it needs reinforcements in a couple of areas“.
I Wolves they would need a quarter back behind starters Dawson and Kilman – who eventually renewed his contract after interest from Napoli – and reserve Toti. At the same time behind the rumors they claim that the club wants to get rid of Ait-Nouri (who however played as a starter against United) or Jonny Castro to get to the expert Aaron Cresswell. In addition, the team still has completeness problems in midfield, where Neves and Moutinho’s replacements have not yet arrived and where the club missed the signing of its first goal, the youngster Alex Scott just moved to Bournemouth. Finally, i Wolves they have to deal with the management of heavy redundancies such as those of Guedes and Podence and Bruno Jordao himself who, unlike Pedro Neto, has never been considered reliable by any of his coaches.
Owner Shi does not seem to be willing to step aside, rejecting any possibility that he will see the club put up for sale despite being in difficulty and, as demonstrated by Leicester last season, with the risk of making a mistake in the move which can then cost the category. Meanwhile, during the match against Brighton played last Saturday and lost 4-1, part of the fans bitterly contested the ownership, guilty of having impoverished all the work done in the previous seasons and of underestimating the danger of suddenly finding oneself embroiled in the fight not to relegate. And, in the background, the disturbing figure of Jorge Mendes always remains.