Is Mendes still useful?

[Irish_Wolf]

The problem is there is no balance. Do we even have a scouting network independent of Mendes?

Also another problem is we don't have money lol

 

[Nige100]

The Worlds biggest and arguably best football agent? Yeah I’d say he is useful. The single most important person of the rebuild Nuno doesn’t happen without Mendes.

 

[Bill McCai]

Of course he is. Regardless of the players who got us to this point (Boly, Neves, Jota etc in the first season under Nuno, then Raul, Rui, Moutinho etc) he constantly puts us in the conversation for some of the finest youngsters in the game (going back to Goncalves, then RAN/Vitinha). He cant force Wolves to play them/capitalise on them. Look at the deals we did for Vinagre (signed for £2.5m, sold for £20m) and Mir (signed for £2m, sold for £12m). Even Jota netted us a £30m profit. We've got burnt on Semedo and Silva but I suppose that is the nature of the carrousel. One of the biggest problems we have now is we are an established PL club and improving on what we have is much harder than it was in the Championship. Replacing Jack Price and Dave Edwards is one thing, replacing Rui Patricio and Ruben Neves is another.

And then you think back to the links with Cancelo, Dias etc prior to their PL moves. Imagine if Fosun decided they really wanted to go for it - we'd be in a great position to snare some of the best players.

 

[Rednal Wolf]

As time marches on the relevant question now needs to be " are we still useful to Mendes ?" The answer is..... Our importance to him is diminishing as our funding is now so restricted .
He was extremely useful when money was freely available. Make no mistake he has made millions from Wolves alone and I'd love to know what he got out of the Fabio Silva affair .
Can't help but think we are way down the pecking order now and get leftovers that no one else really wants....... When the money was free and easy we would have been offered A grade players...... Now its C and D
I think we need to start shopping around away from Portugal......... That's if our relationship with Mendes allows us to ?
Similar clubs to us like Villa use the whole market and by doing so obviously have an advantage . That and the fact they have a boat load more money than us. !

 

[those were the days]

We certainly came out of things prettybadly in Sep 2020 as I’ve posted before here

Benfica sign Darwin Nunez for €24m and we sign Fabio Silva for £35m the next day with Porto and Mendes taking sizeable cuts after Silva signed a new deal at Porto raising his buyout clause materially.

Recent rumours suggest Wolves scouts recommended Nunez but it got vetoed by Wolves (presumably Nuno and/or Shi). Not sure how true this is but that decision alone has had a massive impact on Wolves. Anyone who knows what happened probably has good insight into the OPs question imo.

 

[IANWILSON]

He seems to have his fingers in far too many pies. After all, he's only here to line his own pockets. Him and Fosun make a great team.

 

[Mark Rankines Lovechild]

A Maserati would be extremely useful to me but, as I cant afford it, there’s not much point them trying to sell me one.
I’ll have a look for a used Ford Focus instead.

 

[wwbug]

Mendes is our only hope . We are a club full of Premier League pigmies in the backrooms . And of course no money.
The Premier League is really a World league. Nobody in Wolves infrastructure has that necessary background to succeed at that high level. .
He is our USP.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

This window will determine however by numerous accounts club had chance to sign Sanches and Palhinha.

He can't force us to pay up

 

[Gold Flag Flying High]

And I could say the same about any decent agent, and any club willing to spend decent money, will get lots of attention from Mendes. I just don’t see us getting anything more from Mendes now, than any mid table PL gets.

I get what you’re saying Sussex, I suppose the truth is I don’t really know how many of our more recent signings involve mendes. I’m not sure the approach of Jeff shi being so open about selling to buy is necessarily a smart move.

Now other clubs know we are relying on them to buy our players before we do anything big in the market and that seems like a lot of leverage, perhaps for instance they could think “well we want neves but if we wait long enough then wolves will have to sell cheap or the player will run out their contract and in the meantime Wolves are no stronger than last season”. An over analysis perhaps.

 

[Wolf316]

A Maserati would be extremely useful to me but, as I cant afford it, there’s not much point them trying to sell me one.
I’ll have a look for a used Ford Focus instead.

You could pop down to Maserati offer them Ford Focus money and when they turn you down say oh well I tried to buy one.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

I get what you’re saying Sussex, I suppose the truth is I don’t really know how many of our more recent signings involve mendes. I’m not sure the approach of Jeff shi being so open about selling to buy is necessarily a smart move.

Now other clubs know we are relying on them to buy our players before we do anything big in the market and that seems like a lot of leverage, perhaps for instance they could think “well we want neves but if we wait long enough then wolves will have to sell cheap or the player will run out their contract and in the meantime Wolves are no stronger than last season”. An over analysis perhaps.

I have some sympathy for Jeff. If he stays quiet on our transfer strategy, he gets criticised. If he talks about it, he gets criticised, and he send potentially counter productive signals to other clubs!

 

[mcwolf]

rather have him that not have him sorting deals. quite sure we would not be where we are without his deals......remember villa an leeds bitching about it !!
remember we used to shop in Lidl now its Waitrose

 

[Jawwfc]

One of the biggest problems we have now is we are an established PL club and improving on what we have is much harder than it was in the Championship. Replacing Jack Price and Dave Edwards is one thing, replacing Rui Patricio and Ruben Neves is another.

This is something what is often forgotten, we have reached that point where a lot of players who will improve will be chased by the top 6 and bigger European teams and normally attract a much bigger cost. It's more difficult to unearth hidden gems at this level than in the championship.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

rather have him that not have him sorting deals. quite sure we would not be where we are without his deals......remember villa an leeds bitching about it !!

Oh I agree. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ungrateful for the link to Mendes at all. I was just thinking that it’s yielding less benefits in recent times, and was wondering why.

The fact we have less money to invest, and are competing with the big six to improve the existing squad, are all valid reasons why we might see fewer of his trademark new signings.

Given we appear to have a strategy of selling one of our stars each summer to fund additions, I am a little more concerned about the apparent inability of Mendes to sell Traore for good money last summer, and him and Neves this summer. I know it takes the buying club to be willing and able, but in the past, he seemed able to do his magic to make these deals happen. The pandemic and its impact on clubs finances may well be a factor limiting his ability to wheel and deal.

 

[Gold Flag Flying High]

I have some sympathy for Jeff. If he stays quiet on our transfer strategy, he gets criticised. If he talks about it, he gets criticised, and he send potentially counter productive signals to other clubs!

Oh I’m firmly in the camp of Jeff keeping his mouth shut lol.

 

[Ned]

He’s becoming less effective, for sure. Mainly because we are above a lot of the “bargain” players he has on his books and the likes of Neves and Jota from the championship maybe wouldn’t be ready for us - we would be the next team down the chain who pays big bucks for them.

Until our bank balance and income improve enough for us to be offered his better players then it’s going to stay like it is - the odd good deal but mainly us being used as a dumping ground to help the Barca wage bill.

 

[Summer_Wolf]

Mendes goes where the money is, Fosun don't want to spend. Some dodgy ones like Silva and Trincao which haven't worked granted, but without Mendes we'd be signing more Hwang level signings.