Jeff Shi Out

[Asthmatic Wolf]

We've always been aware that our best players will leave at some point, that's part of the deal for getting them to come here (and we usually treat players very well if they treat us well...ignoring *******s like Nunes).
I actually think that's what got us going in the first place, the belief that we weren't a club that would put handcuffs on players.....why would they have come here at all in that case? It worked with Jota, worked with Neves, and it will work with Neto...we blotted our copybook with some of the later signings, who didn't want to come here in the first place.

What we need to see this summer is if the ambitions have actually changed, or whether we've just been paying the price for poor decisions and will get back on track this summer, now they we've paid our dues to stay within the rules. Actions will speak louder than words.

*All will be void if Fosun sell up, you'd think with a threadbare squad but a place in the Premier League guaranteed, we would be quite attractive to investors.

From 2018-2022 (I would say 23 but some will say Coady was still key 2022) the only key player we sold was Jota, which coincided with the start of the decline.

Whilst I agree it was the original plan for whatever reason it was not the case and for me, when wedded to the ambition declared by Fosun, led to the golden period in the PL.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

He was quoted as saying 'He's my boy' in the press, but i'm sure you'll think you know better, you always do. However you sugarcoat it, Shi was taken for a ride, a 35 million pound ride. Yeah we know, everybody makes mistakes.

I mean you could actually read the full interview and see EXACTLY what he said, or you can just moan and have a go at me over one line in a three page interview. Go to bed…

 

[Wisdomwolf]

The chairman / CEO role is an Administrative role, they don’t need to know about football. How many chairman /CEO’s are “Football” men?

Guo isn’t getting more involved than he is, he’s running a massive conglomerate which is in a huge financial turmoil of which wolves is a tiny part of the group.

Jeff is an employee, of course he’s following orders that come from above, like anyone else in the world with a boss!

“Huge turmoil” as a seasoned operator in the far east including China, this is patently not the case.

The rest I concur with.

 

[Asthmatic Wolf]

The chairman / CEO role is an Administrative role, they don’t need to know about football. How many chairman /CEO’s are “Football” men?

Guo isn’t getting more involved than he is, he’s running a massive conglomerate which is in a huge financial turmoil of which wolves is a tiny part of the group.

Jeff is an employee, of course he’s following orders that come from above, like anyone else in the world with a boss!

I never followed orders from my boss.

*I was removed from my role shortly afterwards

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

We have achieved what we have despite Shi not because of him. There’s been more poor decisions than good ones, and we simply can’t believe a word that he says. Other than that….

What’s the measure for that though? How do we know it’s despite him and not as a result of him? We simply don’t

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

“Huge turmoil” as a seasoned operator in the far east including China, this is patently not the case.

The rest I concur with.

Is it patently not the case? How so?

 

[wolvesaywe]

What is the thread called????

I also judge him on;

Quality of the playing squad

How he supports the manager and giving him the tools he needs.

Running the clubs finances properly

He has failed in 2 of those massively and while he saved the third one, to do it made his failing of the first two an inevitability to miss……

but I would count the third as a net zero…. As we had to have a massive fire sale, depleting the squad and didn’t have the money to sign a loan striker when the manager was told he could if he released two strikers and money wouldn’t be an issue. GON said the fee was small (or words to that effect). That is SHOCKING for a team spending its sixth season in the premier league!

We are where we are due to the amazing work of GON, not the work of Jeff this season.

He didn’t pick/interview the manager mate, so you cannot give him that one…… he left it all to Hobbs…. .

"The amazing work of GON". Back in September, when it was fashionable, you posted some quotes from your fantasy sources mocking his appointment

 

[Bryce]

Perhaps a 50% hit rate in terms of good coaches (not to mention JL) is not too bad?

Really? JL turned out to be a self centred **** . Besides he also appointed Zenga, second only to Saunders as the worst manager ever

 

[VancouverWolf]

“Huge turmoil” as a seasoned operator in the far east including China, this is patently not the case.

The rest I concur with.

Actually, the Chinese economy is STILL sinking ( present tense), with no end in sight.
There are domestic/political forces in China that are desperately grappling with trying to stop/control the turmoil in the Chinese economy.
In short the CCP want control but investors, both domestic and abroad, don’t trust the party.

So, Fosun, like many other Chinese companies, are in a situation where confidence in the future is very low, and this, these companies are being ultra paranoid and careful.

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

I doubt it.

A chairman has a reasonable amount of autonomy.

You don't understand Chinese business culture then.

 

[wolfslair]

"The amazing work of GON". Back in September, when it was fashionable, you posted some quotes from your fantasy sources mocking his appointment

So a person cannot make a mistake and form a wrong opinion? Based on mates going on a wind up…,

Something I admitted fault and remorse over. Many wouldn’t have admitted it, or shared the circumstances that didn’t help them in a personal level say things online they are ashamed of…..

So because I doubted the appointment, I can never change that opinion?

Wow…. Very closed minded aren’t you? So based on that post once an opinion is formed it cannot be changed? Ok…

Yes, GON has done an amazing job Nd long may that continue!!

 

[Bondi Wolf]

Jeff must be "Employee of the Century" at Fosun

1. Buys an asset for 30m
2. Invests another 120m
3. Turns it into a low risk asset worth 300m+, doubling investment value

 

[Wagstaffe Was Magic]

The paucity of striker cover is unforgivable according to some fans but in defence of Jeff, it wasn’t his fault that we purchased a succession of dud strikers while spending a small fortune …

Silva £35m
Guedes £25m
Cutrone £15m
Sasa £15m

£90m spent by Fosun ……. and how many goals??

 

[Rubberball]

The paucity of striker cover is unforgivable according to some fans but in defence of Jeff, it wasn’t his fault that we purchased a succession of dud strikers while spending a small fortune …

Silva £35m
Guedes £25m
Cutrone £15m
Sasa £15m

£90m spent by Fosun ……. and how many goals??

As he was the actual person who wanted and signed off on Silva and Guides it is his fault.

He is the reason we are in the financial mess we were this season. That would cost most CEO's their job.

 

[wolfslair]

The paucity of striker cover is unforgivable according to some fans but in defence of Jeff, it wasn’t his fault that we purchased a succession of dud strikers while spending a small fortune …

Silva £35m
Guedes £25m
Cutrone £15m
Sasa £15m

£90m spent by Fosun ……. and how many goals??

Silva - significant error! Way overspent, made even worse when Fabio was available for less than €10m the summer before…….

Sasa - career sicknote without the ACL history. Lovely lad, great finisher but had been fit for barely 53% of his senior career the day he signed…… with a small squad mentality it was a rushed signing that was statistically more likely to fail than succeed.

Cutrone - had talent, the fee was reasonable . So fee and potential against risk made this a sensible transfer that is just one of those things.

However…..it is very clear he didn’t want to leave his boyhood club and was essentially forced out.

But the fee was sensible and more than worth to take a punt on, so for me, no criticism of Jeff on the whole on cutrone!

Guedes…… a marque signing, fee was sensible. Gets credit like the cutrone one for a signing that fee was good and should in theory have worked.

But like cutrone, we signed a player who didn’t want really want to come.

So cutrone and Guedes were bad signings because we spent on players who were forced essentially by clubs/agents to come and how often do those deals pay off for the signing club?

The fact Fabio cost 10m more than a guy with an actual senior goal scoring record in Guedes and close to 19m more than cutrone who again, in fairness had senior league goals in big games makes the Fabio fee even more baffling and hard to understand……

Goal scorers are hard to come by…… but the fact we have rarely signed “average” strikers is amazing!

For me, the fact this catalogue of dud catalogue of dud strikers shows why Matt Hobbs is so important!!!! And that Jeff wasted money and allowed people to make signings that had more risk factors than reward means he didn’t deliver on his job to improve the squad properly.

 

[SmiffyWolf]

Jeff's doing a great job I feel.

Surely due to the rise in the standards of the product on the pitch at least a 30 percent increase on season ticket costs .

45 percent increase on the pints . £5 fee to have a **** . £2.50 for a **** and then we can break the top four and smash FFP.

Really delighted with our leadership by Shi and Fosun .

 

[Hot Fuss]

But Jeff went out of his way to claim credit for the Fabio Silva signing, calling him 'my boy'. That was his decision and he was sold a pup.

Jeff did get massively overexcited about Fabio and there are a couple of funny quotes from him regarding the signing, (“I say that he is at least top 3, or top 1, best wonderkid in the world” is a classic), but, being pedantic the “my boy” comment was about Helder Costa.

 

[Wolf316]

We have dropped in the league every year and had a major threat of relegation last season…… plus we have a squad that is way to small that led to the the need to have a squad with a 15 year old in it yesterday and two GK’s on the bench…..

How is that a rise in standards since the constant price increases came in?

Think he’s taking the **** mate.

 

[wolfslair]

Think he’s taking the **** mate.

Will delete then matey! Hahaha

 

[Frank Lincoln]

I have no idea how good a job Jeff Shi does, but next season will be our seventh consecutive season in the premier league, so someone, somewhere behind the scenes has been doing a good job.

My question would be that if Shi leaves, then who takes over? Have Fosun got a person ready to take the mantle and steer the good ship Wolverhampton into calm waters?

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

The paucity of striker cover is unforgivable according to some fans but in defence of Jeff, it wasn’t his fault that we purchased a succession of dud strikers while spending a small fortune …

Silva £35m
Guedes £25m
Cutrone £15m
Sasa £15m

£90m spent by Fosun ……. and how many goals??

He decided to sign Silva at that price, not Nuno .

What football manager would advocate that.

And still people try to defend him. Outrageous

 

[loppers86]

I can’t be doing with this anymore.

Shi is actively managing us to be average. if we are doing too well he actively tries to make us worse (adama, fabio, sasa) and if we aren’t doing well enough he invests.

He wants us average because that’s the best platform for the player trading he thinks is going to make the money.

The whole ethos of sport and football to strive to improve.

our CEO consciously and deliberately makes us worse when we are doing well, meaning quite literally that we are no longer a sports club, we are a business only.

i didn’t set out to support a business, therefore I will be giving my money to National League North clubs until:

Shi has gone
Var has gone
FA cup has replays again.

which, i expect, will be never.

 

[we love jez moxey]

He decided to sign Silva at that price, not Nuno .

What football manager would advocate that.

And still people try to defend him. Outrageous

The Silva fee was payback for Neves and other little favours in the world of Mendes. There's a recent Mendes interview where he discussed similar transactions.

This has been done to death now.

 

[wolfslair]

He decided to sign Silva at that price, not Nuno .

What football manager would advocate that.

And still people try to defend him. Outrageous

The Teflon don…….

 

[North West Wanderer]

The Silva fee was payback for Neves and other little favours in the world of Mendes. There's a recent Mendes interview where he discussed similar transactions.

This has been done to death now.

Precisely, and for all the bad decisions that have been made, surely the good ones have to be considered too.

 

[Wisdomwolf]

Is it patently not the case? How so?

There’s so much to this that messaging exchanges, however good the Mix is can do it justice. Happy to have a chat pre match?

 

[Chris H]

Chris H you know your stuff (with accounting, nothing else ) could you please explain something to me which I am unsure of. With FFP allowable losses are higher as I understand it if the owner puts money in to a certain limit.

Has Fosun put money in to that limit and we were close to the edge in spite of this?

Yeah, you can only make a loss of £5m a season from club funds, the next £30m a season must be owner funded which, as far as you can tell from the accounts they have done.

See below a summary I did a little while back which details the funds put in by Fosun:

Well that is the net loan position for funds put in by Fosun, the player sales are seperate income in to the club.

But here’s a table of the player purchases, player sales and net funds into and out of Wolves from Fosun:

Year to	Purchases	Sales	Fosun
May-17	£32.5m	£2.9m	£27m (£27m loan in, none out, none offset)
May-18	£24.6m	£10.7m	£48m (£48m loan in, none out, none offset)
May-19	£111.0m	£21.1m	(£56m loan in, none out, none offset)
May-20	£118.4m	£14.9m	-£3.5m (£6m loan in, £2.5m out, £7m offset against sponsorship income etc)
May-21	£84.0m	£73.8m	-£127.5m (£0 in, none out, £126.5m loan written off, £1m sponsorship income etc)
May-22	£31.1m	£20.1m	£13.4m (£13.4m loan in, none out, none offset)
May-23	£211.6m	£51.8m	£51.2m (£51.2m in, none out, none offset)
Total	£613.2m	£195.3m	£64.6m loan owed at May-23

Of the funds in and out from Fosun:

£201.6m paid in to Wolves
-£2.5m paid out (seems to be one transaction, unclear if this was physically paid out from Wolves to Fosun or if it was offset against monies in / out from interrelated companies)
-£8.0m loans offset against sponsorship income of the training ground etc
-£126.5m loans written off
————
£64.6m owed at May-23

 

[jonesy]

Yeah, you can only make a loss of £5m a season from club funds, the next £30m a season must be owner funded which, as far as you can tell from the accounts they have done.

See below a summary I did a little while back which details the funds put in by Fosun:

FFP is just a way of the top clubs getting advantage

Football is corrupt on and off the pitch