Jeff Shi - Interview in The Athletic

[WickedWolfie]

Since when has Wolves generated any cash for Fosun? The value of Wolves to Fosun will likely only be realised when they sell some or all of their interest in the club. Very few clubs generate stable income beyond their needs for the benefit of their shareholders.

You may need to divorce Wolves the football team from other activities under Wolves the brand. The fear is that the latter may start, if they are not already, generating significant revenues. However as things stand there seems to be absolutely no guarantee that those will fall to the former as opposed to Fosun. Worse still is what might happen to the ownership of the goodwill, possible IPR, etc associated with the brand.

 

[Summer_Wolf]

"
Summer_Wolf said:
We were also told by Shi:
- Jackett is staying
- Zenga is a good manager
- Lambert will stay for a long time and has 'the same DNA' as us
- We want to be one of the world's best clubs and compete/be bigger than Man City and be achieving European football regularly
- Money is no issue
- Fabio Silva can get into any Premier league team
- Vitinha is an 'integral part' of our recruitment process.
- The whole 'fans matter' in the Super League statement then proceeds to rip fans off.
- We have a million loyal fans in Mexico following us on social media

Need I go on? It doesn't matter what Shi says, most of what he comes out with is bull**** anyway!




Said this weeks ago on the transfer thread and stand by it. Jeff is full of bull****! His 'interview' today was full of Moxey-like spin, nonsense and blaming everyone but himself. He's effectively thrown Bruno under a bus as well. What are we now? He's talking about Wolves like we're some sort of plaything. We are not a badge, we are a football club. Must admit I am concerned about where we are heading, not just because of the window, but it feels like **** up after **** up at the moment and Fosun are taking fans for mugs.

 

[Rhoswolf]

"
Summer_Wolf said:
We were also told by Shi:
- Jackett is staying
- Zenga is a good manager
- Lambert will stay for a long time and has 'the same DNA' as us
- We want to be one of the world's best clubs and compete/be bigger than Man City and be achieving European football regularly
- Money is no issue
- Fabio Silva can get into any Premier league team
- Vitinha is an 'integral part' of our recruitment process.
- The whole 'fans matter' in the Super League statement then proceeds to rip fans off.
- We have a million loyal fans in Mexico following us on social media

Need I go on? It doesn't matter what Shi says, most of what he comes out with is bull**** anyway!




Said this weeks ago on the transfer thread and stand by it. Jeff is full of bull****! His 'interview' today was full of Moxey-like spin, nonsense and blaming everyone but himself. He's effectively thrown Bruno under a bus as well. What are we now? He's talking about Wolves like we're some sort of plaything. We are not a badge, we are a football club. Must admit I am concerned about where we are heading, not just because of the window, but it feels like **** up after **** up at the moment and Fosun are taking fans for mugs.

totally agree.

 

[JOSWolf]

"
Summer_Wolf said:
We were also told by Shi:
- Jackett is staying
- Zenga is a good manager
- Lambert will stay for a long time and has 'the same DNA' as us
- We want to be one of the world's best clubs and compete/be bigger than Man City and be achieving European football regularly
- Money is no issue
- Fabio Silva can get into any Premier league team
- Vitinha is an 'integral part' of our recruitment process.
- The whole 'fans matter' in the Super League statement then proceeds to rip fans off.
- We have a million loyal fans in Mexico following us on social media

Need I go on? It doesn't matter what Shi says, most of what he comes out with is bull**** anyway!




Said this weeks ago on the transfer thread and stand by it. Jeff is full of bull****! His 'interview' today was full of Moxey-like spin, nonsense and blaming everyone but himself. He's effectively thrown Bruno under a bus as well. What are we now? He's talking about Wolves like we're some sort of plaything. We are not a badge, we are a football club. Must admit I am concerned about where we are heading, not just because of the window, but it feels like **** up after **** up at the moment and Fosun are taking fans for mugs.

Spot on mate. Totally agree.

 

[Kingswood Wolf]

Has just made me more annoyed than I was this time last week. Brilliant.

 

[steve vena]

I'm still annoyed from last week!

Can't get past it, and now this article...Great.

 

[Deleted member yltz11841]

Judge us in 2-3 years now is it?

2 months ago it was 'judge us at the end of the window'

You've failed in your job to convince the main targets to come to the club, Jeff. Then you've also failed to get in the second choices on deadline day.

After watching those 'ask wolves' interviews, I'm not surprised a prospective player hasn't been convinced to join us. Our senior team have about as much football knowledge and charisma as my big toe.

When players signed for us they used to all talk about being sold 'the project'. There is none of that now!

That 2-3 years will be lapped up by many, then once that timescale has finished another BS timescale will be thrown out ready to be swallowed hook line and sinker by many.

 

[Rhoswolf]

That 2-3 years will be lapped up by many, then once that timescale has finished another BS timescale will be thrown out ready to be swallowed hook line and sinker by many.

Sadly true.

 

[Chris H]

I find it interesting the number of people spitting feathers that we let MGW go out on loan without bringing a CM in, despite the fact MGW isn’t likely to play CM anyway and was a forward option who was allowed to go on loan for valuable game time once Hwang was brought in. It’s quite a recurring theme within this thread as it is many others.

I don’t doubt we are seriously short in midfield, I’ve stated it myself too, but I can guarantee that pretty much every poster complaining that MGW wasn’t kept as a CM option would have gone ballistic if the club had kept him and stated that as they hadn’t been able to get the right target in he would be considered a CM option for now. Pretty much every one of you would have been complaining that he isn’t a CM and that it was a cop out by the club keeping him as such. I’m sure a few months down the line when he hadn’t featured some would even have said how it’s going to hamper his development and he could have done with a loan move.

Like I say, I fully agree the midfield issue is a joke, but the MGW argument is a weird one for me and strikes me as finding another reason to be annoyed which is unnecessary when there are plenty of genuine ones for you to get stuck in to already.

 

[CodsallWolf]

"
Summer_Wolf said:
We were also told by Shi:
- Jackett is staying
- Zenga is a good manager
- Lambert will stay for a long time and has 'the same DNA' as us
- We want to be one of the world's best clubs and compete/be bigger than Man City and be achieving European football regularly
- Money is no issue
- Fabio Silva can get into any Premier league team
- Vitinha is an 'integral part' of our recruitment process.
- The whole 'fans matter' in the Super League statement then proceeds to rip fans off.
- We have a million loyal fans in Mexico following us on social media

Need I go on? It doesn't matter what Shi says, most of what he comes out with is bull**** anyway!




Said this weeks ago on the transfer thread and stand by it. Jeff is full of bull****! His 'interview' today was full of Moxey-like spin, nonsense and blaming everyone but himself. He's effectively thrown Bruno under a bus as well. What are we now? He's talking about Wolves like we're some sort of plaything. We are not a badge, we are a football club. Must admit I am concerned about where we are heading, not just because of the window, but it feels like **** up after **** up at the moment and Fosun are taking fans for mugs.

Don’t forget all the stadium drivel as well.

 

[Jawwfc]

I think Jeff is very much a commercial man rather than a football man, I don't doubt Fosuns long term goals in fact I'm sure some (a minority) are desperate to be able to have an Ashley/Glazer situation just because Newcastle and Man United have that.

There has been a lot of criticism about Esports involvement but I think we're at a crossroads in order to grow the club, if the club can tap into this market then it will help the club commercially and in turn boost our profile, this is what Jeff should be focused on the last thing he needs to be told is how to do this side of his job by people with zero experience in this matter... however the success of the football team needs to be run as a parallel to this not separately, we all know the big selling point for fosun was that they saw potential in the brand.

Jeff needs a football man like Thelwell was (although a lot were anti him despite not realising what he did) but we could now be in a postion to attract someone with more experience in this area.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

I stopped taking it seriously when he said we couldn't sign a CH better than Saiss.

 

[reanswolf]

I find it interesting the number of people spitting feathers that we let MGW go out on loan without bringing a CM in, despite the fact MGW isn’t likely to play CM anyway and was a forward option who was allowed to go on loan for valuable game time once Hwang was brought in. It’s quite a recurring theme within this thread as it is many others.

I don’t doubt we are seriously short in midfield, I’ve stated it myself too, but I can guarantee that pretty much every poster complaining that MGW wasn’t kept as a CM option would have gone ballistic if the club had kept him and stated that as they hadn’t been able to get the right target in he would be considered a CM option for now. Pretty much every one of you would have been complaining that he isn’t a CM and that it was a cop out by the club keeping him as such. I’m sure a few months down the line when he hadn’t featured some would even have said how it’s going to hamper his development and he could have done with a loan move.

Like I say, I fully agree the midfield issue is a joke, but the MGW argument is a weird one for me and strikes me as finding another reason to be annoyed which is unnecessary when there are plenty of genuine ones for you to get stuck in to already.

I know he is an attacking CM (the only one left at the club) and at least he was starting to show signs of thriving and was at least an option to bring on.

What do we have now?

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

I know he is an attacking CM (the only one left at the club) and at least he was starting to show signs of thriving and was at least an option to bring on.

What do we have now?

under 18? Under 15?

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

I stopped taking it seriously when he said we couldn't sign a CH better than Saiss.

Such a joke.

 

[WolvTown]

I'm going to take Jeff for his word and accept the top players weren't available, without ridiculously inflated prices.
But I'm also going to measure all future transfers from this point too.
If in the next window we end up buying below average players, well there's no denying it.
If we buy a couple of top players, guaranteed to go straight into the starting line-up, Jeff was right all along.

 

[Chris H]

I know he is an attacking CM (the only one left at the club) and at least he was starting to show signs of thriving and was at least an option to bring on.

What do we have now?

But he wouldn’t have played in a 2 realistically, he was a forward option which we have plenty of. No one would have been happy with him being kept as a CM option, they’d have said it was a cop out for not signing one.

Even if we’d kept him Saiss would have been put in first, I just don’t see as MGW staying would have helped us, but it would have stunted his development for yet another season.

 

[NJWolves69]

I find it interesting the number of people spitting feathers that we let MGW go out on loan without bringing a CM in, despite the fact MGW isn’t likely to play CM anyway and was a forward option who was allowed to go on loan for valuable game time once Hwang was brought in. It’s quite a recurring theme within this thread as it is many others.

I don’t doubt we are seriously short in midfield, I’ve stated it myself too, but I can guarantee that pretty much every poster complaining that MGW wasn’t kept as a CM option would have gone ballistic if the club had kept him and stated that as they hadn’t been able to get the right target in he would be considered a CM option for now. Pretty much every one of you would have been complaining that he isn’t a CM and that it was a cop out by the club keeping him as such. I’m sure a few months down the line when he hadn’t featured some would even have said how it’s going to hamper his development and he could have done with a loan move.

Like I say, I fully agree the midfield issue is a joke, but the MGW argument is a weird one for me and strikes me as finding another reason to be annoyed which is unnecessary when there are plenty of genuine ones for you to get stuck in to already.

In our current formation, yes you're probably right. But Bruno played 433 and 4231 at Benfica for the most part so I imagine he'd prefer to try and replicate that here, right? In that case there would be an attacking midfield role for MGW here.

 

[Chris H]

In our current formation, yes you're probably right. But Bruno played 433 and 4231 at Benfica for the most part so I imagine he'd prefer to try and replicate that here, right? In that case there would be an attacking midfield role for MGW here.

All of that is fair and valid, but it doesn’t change the fact he wouldn’t be a viable replacement for the 2 CM positions if 2 of Neves, Moutinho or Dendoncker aren’t available which was the point I was making that people keep stating, does it?

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

I'm going to take Jeff for his word and accept the top players weren't available, without ridiculously inflated prices.
But I'm also going to measure all future transfers from this point too.
If in the next window we end up buying below average players, well there's no denying it.
If we buy a couple of top players, guaranteed to go straight into the starting line-up, Jeff was right all along.

If we are in the championship he was definitely very wrong indeed.

 

[DPE]

Positives from that are Lage didn’t just add for the sake of it and clearly wants quality.

Negatives everything else…

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

All of that is fair and valid, but it doesn’t change the fact he wouldn’t be a viable replacement for the 2 CM positions if 2 of Neves, Moutinho or Dendoncker aren’t available which was the point I was making that people keep stating, does it?

He would be viable in the centre , not first choice but better than bringing an u18 into cm

 

[Adrian_Monk]

The article didn't seem to make any sense. Earlier in the window they wanted to sign their top targets, but on the last day they weren't really top targets so Bruno said no, but they don't want to sign players for the sake of it...so if that's the case, why bother even offering the players to him? Why bother even trying to do deals if Bruno was there the whole time and he didn't want them?

I suppose Tank Man was invented by the NSA and Xinjiang intern camps are camps for interns as well huh Jeff?

 

[ANONYMOUS☆WOLF]

Can't wait to hear how notoriously difficult the January transfer window is AGAIN when it rolls round

 

[HKWolf]

I'm going to take Jeff for his word and accept the top players weren't available, without ridiculously inflated prices.
But I'm also going to measure all future transfers from this point too.
If in the next window we end up buying below average players, well there's no denying it.
If we buy a couple of top players, guaranteed to go straight into the starting line-up, Jeff was right all along.

I’ll save you the wait. We tried to buy Keiffer Moore.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

But he wouldn’t have played in a 2 realistically, he was a forward option which we have plenty of. No one would have been happy with him being kept as a CM option, they’d have said it was a cop out for not signing one.

Even if we’d kept him Saiss would have been put in first, I just don’t see as MGW staying would have helped us, but it would have stunted his development for yet another season.

Don’t disagree on whether we needed Morgan in the squad, but he was playing well preseason and so would have provided competition. Secondly, if the plan all along was to loan him out, was Sheffield really the best destination we could manage for a young, English international? It would have been more credible had he gone out earlier in the window to a Champ team pushing for promotion. As it stands, it smacks of desperation and poor planning I’m afraid.

 

[Adrian_Monk]

Btw, the Athletic is free for 6 months for those whose IP address shows they are based in Australia.

 

[Jefe]

The whole "It's hard to attract quality players in this market" spiel, as well...

We convinced Neves, Jota and Boly to join us in the second tier, and convinced Patricio, Moutinho, Jonny and Raul to join us as a newly promoted side. Does anyone buy that things have changed that much in four years?

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

The whole "It's hard to attract quality players in this market" spiel, as well...

We convinced Neves, Jota and Boly to join us in the second tier, and convinced Patricio, Moutinho, Jonny and Raul to join us as a newly promoted side. Does anyone buy that things have changed that much in four years?

More bs

 

[DPE]

The whole "It's hard to attract quality players in this market" spiel, as well...

We convinced Neves, Jota and Boly to join us in the second tier, and convinced Patricio, Moutinho, Jonny and Raul to join us as a newly promoted side. Does anyone buy that things have changed that much in four years?

Plenty of other sides managed also.

 

[sc91]

The whole "It's hard to attract quality players in this market" spiel, as well...

We convinced Neves, Jota and Boly to join us in the second tier, and convinced Patricio, Moutinho, Jonny and Raul to join us as a newly promoted side. Does anyone buy that things have changed that much in four years?

Botman and Sanches both wanted to join. Both have just won a title in France and were in the CL.

 

[Nige100]

We will regret not going the little extra and not buying Botman in my opinion. I think given how the midfield ended up I will reinforce my view made earlier in the summer we will regret not buying Vitinha.

 

[Deleted member yltz11841]

We will regret not going the little extra and not buying Botman in my opinion. I think given how the midfield ended up I will reinforce my view made earlier in the summer we will regret not buying Vitinha.

We have done it plenty of times over the years especially when the best in the business was in charge.
Leon Clarke over Wilson
Keough over Sharp (I like Andy tbf)
Surman over Lallana
saving a few extra quid then cost money in the long run. All the ones we signed values never really changed all the ones we did not went onto bigger and better things bringing in bigger fees which is what FOSUN want.

I can’t imaging some of the dross that was offered to Bruno that he turned down.

 

[sc91]

We will regret not going the little extra and not buying Botman in my opinion. I think given how the midfield ended up I will reinforce my view made earlier in the summer we will regret not buying Vitinha.

Botman will be Ruben Dias mk2.

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

But I ask again where does the money come from. They have already put in £150 million .

Fosun are a global investment company
They decided to diversify into football
Are you telling me they thought they could crack the global football market and premier league for just over a grealish?

fosun are prepared to invest much more.

Jeff is preventing it as he tries to make a name for himself using wolves as a stepping stone.

 

[optimuswolf]

Correct.

Surely would be more stupid to lie about it though? Pretty clear that it stopped being such a constraint this year, when the champo largesse dropped off and the uefa settlement was completed.

I know some on here disagreed, but i think they're just mistaken.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

Bit awkward and a little daft to shoot down the ffp excuse as that was the one thing the positive brigade had been clinging too all summer.

It’s symptomatic of the broader issue of trying to spin a story.

In the early summer, the club seem concerned by the thought they didn’t have much money to spend, so FFP was given as part of the excuse to manage expectations.

End of summer, fans are worried by the failure to sign key players or add depth to key parts of the squad and also the commitment of Fosun to Wolves. Now the club says we had money to spend and FFP wasn’t the constraint, the market was.

If I’m being generous there’s a thread which might be consistent. That within an already constrained budget, FFP was not the barrier, but had we planned to spend big, then it would have been. But Jeff didn’t say that, so we’re left with inconsistent excuses for not investing more in the squad.

 

[VictorPyrrhic]

"
Summer_Wolf said:
We were also told by Shi:
- Jackett is staying
- Zenga is a good manager
- Lambert will stay for a long time and has 'the same DNA' as us
- We want to be one of the world's best clubs and compete/be bigger than Man City and be achieving European football regularly
- Money is no issue
- Fabio Silva can get into any Premier league team
- Vitinha is an 'integral part' of our recruitment process.
- The whole 'fans matter' in the Super League statement then proceeds to rip fans off.
- We have a million loyal fans in Mexico following us on social media

Need I go on? It doesn't matter what Shi says, most of what he comes out with is bull**** anyway!




Said this weeks ago on the transfer thread and stand by it. Jeff is full of bull****! His 'interview' today was full of Moxey-like spin, nonsense and blaming everyone but himself. He's effectively thrown Bruno under a bus as well. What are we now? He's talking about Wolves like we're some sort of plaything. We are not a badge, we are a football club. Must admit I am concerned about where we are heading, not just because of the window, but it feels like **** up after **** up at the moment and Fosun are taking fans for mugs.

Maybe he believed them at the point he said them. Unlikley but you never know.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

Botman will be Ruben Dias mk2.

Absolutely this. Watch him get snapped up early in the Jan window by West Ham or Everton or possibly even one of the Top 4.
#snoozeyoulose

 

[Corporate Wolf]

It’s symptomatic of the broader issue of trying to spin a story.

In the early summer, the club seem concerned by the thought they didn’t have much money to spend, so FFP was given as part of the excuse to manage expectations.

End of summer, fans are worried by the failure to sign key players or add depth to key parts of the squad and also the commitment of Fosun to Wolves. Now the club says we had money to spend and FFP wasn’t the constraint, the market was.

If I’m being generous there’s a thread which might be consistent. That within an already constrained budget, FFP was not the barrier, but had we planned to spend big, then it would have been. But Jeff didn’t say that, so we’re left with inconsistent excuses for not investing more in the squad.

So basically you are eloquently saying that Jeff is just coming out with BS.