The ‘Sustainability’ Paradox

[John de Wolf's hairdryer]

Unfortunately we don’t currently have a manager who can act as a conduit between the owners, the club and the fans & wider community. McCarthy & Nuno were exceptional in this respect. Nuno in particular being a personal friend & client of Mendes ensured there was a certain amount of respect, integrity & quality control with regards to the players he provided for us. Once that link was broken, we were left with an unbalanced recruitment strategy, and we seem to have fallen way down the list of Mendes’ priorities & with equally disinterested owners. Chinese retrenchment seems to have broken lines of communication with the supporters. Bruno is just a coach, seemingly not strong enough to impose his character & philosophy on either the players, the wider aspects of the club or the recruitment process.

Somebody needs to take the recruitment strategy by the scruff of the neck & make it work in our favour. A continuing merry-go-round between Wolves, Grasshoppers, z-list Mendes cast-offs etc etc just emphasises the law of diminishing returns. Coming in as football novices Fosun & Shi were sold a model that was only sustainable with continuing & growing investment, a stable political & economic climate, and an unbreakable symbiotic relationship between the super-agent & the club’s hierarchy/management.

We now need a pro-active approach, spear-headed by someone dynamic & knowledgeable & capable of thinking outside the box, not a safety first jobsworth toeing what is becoming an increasingly fainter & less ambitious company line.

We're in a Catch-22 now. We are not going to get a charismatic super head coach who will come to Wolves when we're marooned in Premier League no-man's land with no prospect of any injection of investment from the parent company to move the club up a gear, especially when we're allegedly paying the lowest salary to a head coach out of any of the 2021-22 cohort of EPL clubs. Bruno is probably about as good as it's going to get all the time we're intent on emulating Southampton.

And we're not going to move away from the "self-sustainability" approach unless either a/ there is a sea change in Beijing regarding Chinese companies investing in businesses in Britain (pretty unlikely unless President Xi is either debilitated through ill-health or dies [there are rumours that 68 year-old smoker Xi is not in good health], and his successor approves a different strategic direction for China), or b/ Fosun decide to sell either the whole or part of Wolves to other, non-Chinese investors, who are actually prepared to, you know, invest.

 

[SA Wolf]

There is something to be said for not spending money badly and throwing insane sums around desperately trying to chase a dream. However, it feels like Fosun have moved from generally smart investment which paid off (see: promotion to PL), to a Moxey-like "invest the bare minimum", even when a bit more smart investment would have meant Europe, top six, and all the rewards that come with that.

Players like Neves can be convinced to stick around for a while if you sell them a project and show them your ambition, which is clearly why Ruben has stuck around as long as he has. If we offered him continental football in EL, I think he may well have stuck around for another season.

The players we would want to keep are the players that can and will want better. If I was in that position, I'd go as well. Why would I spend the best years of a very limited career at a club which is showing no signs of any ambition other than mid table at best PL football, when there are other teams who will offer the things I want.

Even if we get 50M for Neves, you only have to look at the ridiculous waste of money we've shown recently to work out that in all likelihood that money will be spent on utter dross, and it will be a massive downgrade. Look at how well the Jota money was spent. Enough said.



And teams like Southampton etc. have shown that generally when you sell your best young players, you are probably not going to replace them with anyone as good, and the team gets much weaker as a result, so the cash is effectively wasted.

Liverpool selling top talent like Suarez and managing to reinvest that successfully is the exception, not the rule.

This is the worry for me also. I've seen nothing from the regime at Molineux over recent years that they have a clue about football. Signing players at inflated prices (Silva), signing players before a thorough evaluation (Hwang), taking poor players as part of a outgoing transfer (Hoever), not having a clue about strikers (Cutrone, Mir, that South American bloke, Hwang again), accepting turgid, uninspiring football, ****ing-off supporters..... The list goes on and on.
Most welcomed Fosun when they first arrived and despite a host of poor signings initially and a poor management choice (Zenga), we had two and a half years of thoroughly enjoyable football with Championship promotion, impact on the PL, FA Cup semi final and the like. Unfortunately, despite the hype, that was as good as it got. We are now seen as being dull, easy to beat, especially at home, with a clue-less manager and even our own fans questioning happenings at this grand-old club.
We really need a great close season and start of next, to re-inspire and re-energise Wolves. Will we get it - not so sure!

 

[Stoichkov]

I haven’t said that all Stoichkov so I’m unclear as to your own logic regarding my logic.

We had a team capable of beating any team in the league, with a very small squad, which needed strengthening to move a couple of places up in the league. It’s not inconceivable, and doesn’t require massive investment either. Just retaining your best players and adding (at that time) sensibly to improve.

AC Milan have won Serie A with the lowest wage bill of the top teams, and the likes of Villarreal and Atalanta have made the knockout stages of the Champions League.

It is neither straightforward nor guaranteed, obviously, but it can be, has been and is being done.

It’s not inconceivable but it’s highly unlikely. Likelihood is it would take massive investment

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

There is a provable link between wage spend and league position. Outliers don't change that.

Also note with interest Brian Clough's European Cup winning side being apparently made up of a shoestring budget.. and the first ever Million pound footballer in England of course.

 

[Rangiora Wolf]

Only works if the production line is slow and steady replacing quality with quality rather than an initial splurge with knee jerk signings along the way and a virtual pause in the process.

 

[Bawtry Wolf]

There is a provable link between wage spend and league position. Outliers don't change that.

Also note with interest Brian Clough's European Cup winning side being apparently made up of a shoestring budget.. and the first ever Million pound footballer in England of course.

He’d previously won the league with Derby and Forest picking up players no one else wanted eg John Robertson or were considered over the hill, Dave Mackay. Peter Withe, Larry Loyd, Kenny Burns were all players that weren’t being sought after by others as they were seen on decline or never had it. He bought Francis after he won the league just after the Xmas. He also bought Fashnu later but picked up Gary Birtles for nothing from non-league.

Of course you don’t know how much he pocketed himself

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

He’d previously won the league with Derby and Forest picking up players no one else wanted eg John Robertson or were considered over the hill, Dave Mackay. Peter Withe, Larry Loyd, Kenny Burns were all players that weren’t being sought after by others as they were seen on decline or never had it. He bought Francis after he won the league just after the Xmas. He also bought Fashnu later but picked up Gary Birtles for nothing from non-league.

Of course you don’t know how much he pocketed himself

Ha touché on the last part. Was a different era then though as well, the gap between the top spenders and the rest was obviously there but nowhere near as large. My uncle always told me the difference between the old Div 2 and Div 1 wasn't as large as it is now either but never saw it myself