Should Fosun expand the Grasshoppers project and buy a French team?

[hollo]

Should Fosun expand the Grasshoppers project and buy a French team?

Should Fosun bridge the gap between swiss football and english football by buying a distressed french team like bordeaux. Then the french develop players and farm to wolves.
Chiquinho allegedly refused to join grasshoppers two years ago as the standard of football is low. We could have got him for peanuts if we had bought him before he had emerged this season.

Edon Zhegrova moved to lille from basel. Maybe if we had a french farm team we could have bought him for that team and convinced him later on to join us for a knockdown fee

 

[giantwolf]

I think something like that is in the plan or maybe a Portuguese team.

France would be my choice though as it would be useful to have connections in that market. We’ve already got Jorge for Portugal

 

[Mardenboroughs Shoulder]

It can become an issue if teams meet in Euro competitions. I'm not comfortable with owners holding a portfolio of clubs. Same with feeder clubs from lower leagues, it's anti competition!

 

[clivewolves]

Will Guo have to get a new wife for each club?

 

[Ned]

Seems like the natural progression of things.

I would say the Belgian league would be a good idea but I'm pretty sure other clubs have already done that.

 

[Sedgley Gold N Black]

I know there's been links with Fosun and the French league but that'd be a huge step up of committed finance, and risk, from someone link Grasshoppers which we're still waiting to see the full benefits from.

I can see them eventually building something out like the City & Red Bull models but not sure we'd be able to sufficiently supplement a French league side yet.

Portugal seems to make most sense imv, especially with the links out to South America.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

No I don’t see much point in them buying another team… Because our Leipzig model will be good enough between us and Grasshoppers. They can prepare players for us that are good enough. We know that.

 

[Kcb92]

If they were to buy another team, it should be on another continent in my opinion. There's not many benefits to be gained on top of what we gain from our partnership with Grasshoppers by having another European team.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

If they were to buy another team, it should be on another continent in my opinion. There's not many benefits to be gained on top of what we gain from our partnership with Grasshoppers by having another European team.

A team like Bodø/Glimt from Norway or LASK in Austria would be very clever purchases if they wanted to do it. Problem with Spain, Italy and South America clubs are run by cartel like people

 

[Bradstonian]

Forty odd years ago, I decided to go to the Whorethornes on a midweek night because they were playing a European tie. The visiting team won comfortably. I feel they were destined to have an association with Wolves one day...

 

[TheConcourse]

Intrigued to see how it would work. Watford have a similar thing going on don’t they?

Feels like territory that’s already been walked on, unless we feel like the execution wasn’t very good.

 

[Wandsworth Wolf]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Grasshoppers isn’t owned by Fosun or officially part of the Fosun group. Is it?

 

[Rhyl Wolf]

Oo. How about the Welsh Premier and little ole' Rhyl FC Training on the beach would inspire any potential midfield wizkid - avoiding dog ****, pollution and used needles. Seriously. Scandinavia seems to produce much talent. It all gets like a computer game of 'football ownership.'

 

[goldeneyed]

UK feeder club West Brom
France: Bordeaux
Portugal: Estoril

 

[dnf14]

If they were to buy another team, it should be on another continent in my opinion. There's not many benefits to be gained on top of what we gain from our partnership with Grasshoppers by having another European team.

Absolutely. Red Bull and clubs in Scandinavia in particular are sponsoring tournament and academies in the likes of Nigeria and the Ivory Coast and that's why you see Salzburg pop up with Daka, Kossonou for Hammarby etc. for absolute peanuts.

 

[purplepault69]

Think that the biggest consideration must be the question of work permits , so perhaps scout South / Latin Americas / Caribbean and from there to Zurich if that is an easier route permit wise ?

 

[PTW]

Quite disrespectful for a club with the history of Bordeaux to be labeled as something to be bought and ship players to Wolves. Maybe that wasn't the intention of the post but sounds a bit arrogant with all the respect.

 

[Eastyorksyeltz]

It can become an issue if teams meet in Euro competitions. I'm not comfortable with owners holding a portfolio of clubs. Same with feeder clubs from lower leagues, it's anti competition!

I would agree, If there weren't so many other aspects of the game that wern't equally good examples of anti-competitive, cartel like, behaviour. Professional football is hardly the best example of free market economy.
Personally I would prefer a cooperative basis of organisation, but given that we sold our soul to the devil long ago I don't have any strong moral objection to a feeder club set up. ( As long as we are top of the food chain, of course, which is not always a given!)

 

[WickedWolfie]

Forty odd years ago, I decided to go to the Whorethornes on a midweek night because they were playing a European tie. The visiting team won comfortably. I feel they were destined to have an association with Wolves one day...

Looks like Blackpool might have been more appropriate lol...

 

[WickedWolfie]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Grasshoppers isn’t owned by Fosun or officially part of the Fosun group. Is it?

Technically no

 

[WickedWolfie]

UK feeder club West Brom
France: Bordeaux
Portugal: Estoril

Re UK feeder we don't wish to soil our club through any association with the incestuous ones....

 

[JonahWolf]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Grasshoppers isn’t owned by Fosun or officially part of the Fosun group. Is it?

No, it’s not part of Fosun.
The ‘relationship’ has been made official in recent months though, so appears less shady.

 

[WKFWolf]

They should buy Lille so we can get Sanches and Botman for 10m each

 

[JonahWolf]

Not sure France would be that useful.
Is the league standard there that much higher than Swiss league? Although being counted as one of the top 5 European leagues (albeit the weakest by a distance), does help in work permit and visa considerations.

Maybe Sweden, Norway, seemingly less saturated than say Belgium, Denmark with existing partnerships and networks.
Either that or South America, but there are strong links through Portugal which surely Jorge has relatively covered.

 

[Rabid Wolf]

Wasn't there a rumor of Fosun wanting to buy a French club that was on the verge of bankruptcy some time ago? I'm surprised we've not had a link up with a Chinese club yet.

 

[hollo]

Quite disrespectful for a club with the history of Bordeaux to be labeled as something to be bought and ship players to Wolves. Maybe that wasn't the intention of the post but sounds a bit arrogant with all the respect.

Fosun were linked with last year so that is why i used them as an example.

 

[SuperGran]

Fosun were linked with last year so that is why i used them as an example.

It was a false rumour though so they weren’t linked

 

[YouGottaRaulWithIt]

Oh good, another poll.

 

[Surrey Wolf]

Wasn't there a rumor of Fosun wanting to buy a French club that was on the verge of bankruptcy some time ago? I'm surprised we've not had a link up with a Chinese club yet.

It was a Belgian club

 

[PTW]

Fosun were linked with last year so that is why i used them as an example.

Didn't knew that one. Will never adapt to this reality of historic clubs being bought as some sort of commodity.

 

[JonahWolf]

Didn't knew that one. Will never adapt to this reality of historic clubs being bought as some sort of commodity.

True, but clubs have been traded as commodities for ages. Now they want more than one though.
I see your point, and in a way it’s sad, but there’s no reason all clubs involved can’t improve when things are done right.

Being able to place players at the right level, get the right experience, to improve as players but also the team they’re in. Better allocation of resources, on and off the pitch.
Grasshoppers are doing their best in the league in knocking on a decade. On performance so far, wouldn’t you trust Fosun to make a relative success of any club they took on?

 

[hollo]

Didn't knew that one. Will never adapt to this reality of historic clubs being bought as some sort of commodity.

Grasshoppers are a prestigious club and their fans acknowledge that if it wasn't for fosun they wouldn't get quality players like kawabe or tote. The problem is that they don't stay longer than two seasons so they don't have continuity. Still they are doing okay midtable.

 

[mr_j_007]

For multi-club ownership models to work for us we need to make sure they make the most of the new work permit criteria.

Grasshoppers from the league perspective do earn player many points but would if they managed to achieve European qualification. This has to be the target and likely given the strength of the Swiss league. Given the ownership is technically not fosun this would not be a problem. Equally Switzerland ain’t a bad place to live, so not a problem to convince players to go there from that perspective.

For me all of the above would rule out why owning a club in say France or Portugal would make sense.

What I think would be a very sensible move would be to see if there was a South American club we could purchase in one of the more major leagues who, or team who regular play in there continental competitions. Those competitions earn players the same (or very similar) points to playing in the europa or champions league. As such this would be a good avenue for maximising the South American (central and north as well) market. Using that club as a staging post to bringing players across. For me that would be a the next ownership position to explore.

Having other clubs we have good relationships with to send players on loan to is vital.

 

[giantwolf]

A few years before they purchased Grasshoppers, Fosun were looking at Rio Ave and of course had that little exploration/link up with Jumilla who was owned officially by a 'friend' or someone high up at Fosun I think I recall

They won't stop at 2, almost certain of that. The leaked papers from a few years back highlighted that. Pretty sure it talked of a global football network with different levels of clubs and training facilities

South America was a good shout by someone earlier - the much mentioned "Red Bull Model" includes two Brazilian teams (at different levels) amongst them. Perhaps the link up with the US partners, suggests maybe a look into the US market?

 

[hollo]

If we are only allowed three loans in and out of a single club due to rule changes, it would sense to have multiple owned clubs and max out the three player rule. We have to keep growing and outcompete our competitors.