The Mendes influence (2021)

[wwfc9]

No.

Any explanation why ?

 

[rg4352]

Wouldn’t it make more sense that fosun would push for mendes clients over others not nuno ? When the agent makes fees on transfers so do our owners ? Wolves accounts pay the fees and guo and mendes make the agent fees out of it ? I do wonder how much guo and mendes have made from all our ins and outs over the last 4 years , not saying that’s all fosun are here for but it’s surely a great side earner whilst trying to get us globally recognised …

Purely guessing but I imagine Fosun’s stake in Gestifute means they see the fruits of transfers by Mendes wherever the player goes? Unless there’s some behind the scenes way it’s more beneficial by doing it with Wolves, but I can’t see how it could really.
I’m no expert though by any stretch, have no idea on all the dealings that go on with agents etc!

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Surely when he makes money so do fosun , it suits both parties with his involvement , it’s not all one way ..

isn`t it guo himself who owns part of medes`s op.so not fosun as such?

 

[wwfc9]

isn`t it guo himself who owns part of medes`s op.so not fosun as such?

Yes it is guo himself but it was said mendes made 7m from the Fabio deal , doesn’t that mean guo made 20% of that also ? Tidy sum seeing as the £35m fee will go against wolves books …

 

[wwfc9]

Purely guessing but I imagine Fosun’s stake in Gestifute means they see the fruits of transfers by Mendes wherever the player goes? Unless there’s some behind the scenes way it’s more beneficial by doing it with Wolves, but I can’t see how it could really.
I’m no expert though by any stretch, have no idea on all the dealings that go on with agents etc!

Yes your right of course they would by bringing them to wolves they hope the player turns a profit in 3,4 or 5 years time but if they don’t the loss goes on wolves accounts whilst guo and mendes get a transfer cut twice regardless

 

[rincewind]

If Mendes does place Gattuso there it'll be interesting if the London media label spurs mendes puppets in the same way they do us

And as 1or 2 of our fans do.

 

[Sedgley Gold N Black]

Yeah, selling our project to those sorts of players is the biggest challenge. All Mendes can do is bring them to the table and help to convince them. But as we’ve seen, players like Cancelo, Dias and Fernandes were out of our reach because they are a different class of player.

Interesting to see the comments from Patricio’s mate Nikolas Alek yesterday. About how Nuno going and our poor season last year has made it harder than ever to convince our established stars that the club is continuing its progression. No doubt much harder to convince new players of the same thing too, which might be why we’ve gone down the ‘up and coming’ route more.

If you listen to the players we have bought in, they have an awful lot of trust in Mendes so he’s already done most of the selling for us.

From there it’s about the club/Fosun being prepared to take that next step in terms of fees and presumably wages (and acting fast) that is more likely to deliver the step up in class that would make the difference.

With those you’ve mentioned, they always seemed £5m or so more than where we seem comfortable spending around the £30m mark and based on what’s out there that reluctance to go beyond that in a quick manner has ended up costing us as others have come in and put them out of our reach.

A gamble of that added amount on any of those 3 would have probably had us CL football and breaking in by now in hindsight.

 

[Deleted member 11332]

Any explanation why ?

Reports saying it's the complete opposite.

 

[Chris H]

Yes it is guo himself but it was said mendes made 7m from the Fabio deal , doesn’t that mean guo made 20% of that also ? Tidy sum seeing as the £35m fee will go against wolves books …

He doesn’t see a 20% cut of the income, it’ll be a 20% cut of the profit.

Considering how big Gestifute are, how many people they likely employ and how much travelling they must do I’d imagine they have pretty sizeable overheads.

So it’s not as if Guo is getting 20p in every pound that Gestifute earn in agents fees.

 

[Jay Jay de Wolf]

Admittedly over a long period of time, however......

1. Thelwell leaves Wolves and not replaced (how does Sellars feel about Mendes influence?)
2. Nuno leaves Wolves but we get another Mendes candidate as replacement
3. Nuno mysteriously misses out on two Prem jobs
4. Gattuso leaves Fiorentina after 2wks in job because of conflict over Mendes signings from Porto

Mendes still clearly looms very large at Molineux - but do we think the dynamic has changed at all for Fosun? Will the relationship help us (as it did in the summer of 2018) or hinder us with ill-fitting replacements (2020)? Do we think Fosun can make their own mind up on players, and if so, is Sellars really our only advisor?

This below @Stoichkov answer your 1st question I put on other Yerson thread to you.
Why all this questioning anyway about Mendes it has worked alright his relationship for the passed 4 to 5 years is it for now?
Give Bruno, Scott and Jeff / Mendes a chance please. Don't be such a doom-monger!

Wolves technical director Scott Sellars said: “We’ve been monitoring Yerson for quite a while, and there has been a lot of interest from clubs across Europe, including some of the biggest names in the Premier League. They all see his potential and quality, as do we, but we spoke to him about the pathway we have at the club, and he believes Wolves is the best fit for him.
“He’s a centre-back who’s very athletic, very aggressive, very competitive and has a great attitude to defending – he wants to defend, he wants to make tackles and headers, and has great presence in both boxes, but he’s also very good technically and very composed on the ball. “He’s certainly a player with a high ceiling, someone who is highly regarded in Colombia and we believe the attributes he has will fit very well into the Premier League and into our squad.
“Our new head coach Bruno has been involved in the process, has looked at the player, and together we feel Yerson has the perfect profile to come in and improve the depth of the squad.”

Give Wolves new era under Jeff - Bruno - Sellars - (Mendes) a chance FFS!!

 

[Halesowen wwfc]

He doesn’t see a 20% cut of the income, it’ll be a 20% cut of the profit.

Considering how big Gestifute are, how many people they likely employ and how much travelling they must do I’d imagine they have pretty sizeable overheads.

So it’s not as if Guo is getting 20p in every pound that Gestifute earn in agents fees.

Yes there will be overheads but its a service consultancy led business with recurring incomes from the players as well. Its not as if they a building things. I would expect their profit margins to be extremely high. Lets say the charter a private plane which costs them 15k, but earn 7m from the fabio deal. Its barely picket money to gestifute.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Until we splashed a completely over the top £65m or so on Semedo and Silva I was more than appreciative of the Mendes link. People talk of the Mendes carousel whereby you win on the swings and lose on the roundabouts. No doubt Shi is well aware of the dangers in getting caught up in the Mendes web as well as the advantages. But it is so important we develop our own separate scouting strength. If the latest acquisition from Colombia is an example of that all the better. But this summer should show up more clearly how much we still depend on Mendes and whether the kind of deals for Neves and Jota are still on the agenda. Also whether Sellars/Marshall and co are up to the job.

You can't say and be convinced that it was a completely over the top figure. Semedos price was about right for a player of his calibre and Silva was purely on potential which if he works out he's an absolute bargain. We simply have the most influential man in football as a valued business partner, there is zero downside. Oh and btw the new lads deal was brokered by Mendes

 

[Glass ankles]

Lage will obviously have input into who we recruit. He won't be dumped with new signings he's not seen or heard of before and told to get on with it.

The club will be working with him on his intended set up and style of play and discuss targets with him that helps him achieve that. I don't see the decision to sign a player being down to 1 person how a lot of fans make out. It's a collective effort.

 

[Stoichkov]

This below @Stoichkov answer your 1st question I put on other Yerson thread to you.
Why all this questioning anyway about Mendes it haswork alright his relationship for the passed 4 to 5 years is it for now?
Give Bruno, Scott and Jeff / Mendes a chance please. Don't be such a doom-monger!

Wolves technical director Scott Sellars said: “We’ve been monitoring Yerson for quite a while, and there has been a lot of interest from clubs across Europe, including some of the biggest names in the Premier League. They all see his potential and quality, as do we, but we spoke to him about the pathway we have at the club, and he believes Wolves is the best fit for him.
“He’s a centre-back who’s very athletic, very aggressive, very competitive and has a great attitude to defending – he wants to defend, he wants to make tackles and headers, and has great presence in both boxes, but he’s also very good technically and very composed on the ball. “He’s certainly a player with a high ceiling, someone who is highly regarded in Colombia and we believe the attributes he has will fit very well into the Premier League and into our squad.
“Our new head coach Bruno has been involved in the process, has looked at the player, and together we feel Yerson has the perfect profile to come in and improve the depth of the squad.”

Give Wolves new era under Jeff - Bruno - Sellars - (Mendes) a chance FFS!!

Wow I think you need to read my OP again - not presuming Mendes is good or bad for us overall - just wondering where it’s going. He makes a lot of money out of us and from making deals happen - which is great in 2018 but contributed to a poor 2020-21 season (see Olmo debate, huge fee for Semedo when we needed other players)

He is a figure that causes much discussion across football and important in our club so think I’m entitled to ponder!!

 

[Chris H]

Yes there will be overheads but its a service consultancy led business with recurring incomes from the players as well. Its not as if they a building things. I would expect their profit margins to be extremely high. Lets say the charter a private plane which costs them 15k, but earn 7m from the fabio deal. Its barely picket money to gestifute.

Oh I appreciate it’s very much a labour intensive business without much in the way of costs, as I said though they likely employ a fair few people. It’s not like Jorge has set himself up a one man band limited company and is doing it all himself is he!

Either way, Guo probably isn’t earning significant enough sums of money via Mendes to plump for Mendes clients over any others just for that reason.

 

[rg4352]

Lage will obviously have input into who we recruit. He won't be dumped with new signings he's not seen or heard of before and told to get on with it.

The club will be working with him on his intended set up and style of play and discuss targets with him that helps him achieve that. I don't see the decision to sign a player being down to 1 person how a lot of fans make out. It's a collective effort.

Exactly this, I’m sure I’ve read/ seen numerous articles from wolves themselves where they’ve always said that the scouts go out and assemble shortlists based on the type of player and playing style the manager wants, they then give the dossiers to the manager and he picks out who we should target, it’s then down to Jeff/Sellars and input from the manager to get the deal done

 

[Jay Jay de Wolf]

Wow I think you need to read my OP again - not presuming Mendes is good or bad for us overall - just wondering where it’s going

He is a figure that causes much discussion across football and important in our club so think I’m entitled to ponder!!

I have read the OP clearly OP and your making out now Nuno has left that it's all going to go pear shaped and Mendes won't have this special relationship with Wolves anymore. Plus you are trying to make out the Wolves pack is all falling apart.

Whereas I see this new era as a great chance for fresh faced hungry Wolves challenge for Bruno - Scott with Fosun's full backing.

Less pondering on the doom-mongering please @Stoichkov

More support for the new guys at the helm of WWFC today and the forthcoming season please..

The PASSED is the PASSED

NUNO's Great Legacy at Wolves is secure but has ENDED!

WWFC are MOVING ON !

 

[Flump]

Yes it is guo himself but it was said mendes made 7m from the Fabio deal , doesn’t that mean guo made 20% of that also ? Tidy sum seeing as the £35m fee will go against wolves books …

Ah yes, because Guo (Net worth $3.6 billion) decided to get Fosun to buy Wolves so that he could make £1.4m by buying Fabio. Honestly, I do wonder about some people's thought processes.

 

[Stoichkov]

I have read the OP clearly OP and your making out now Nuno has left that it's all going to go pear shaped and Mendes won't have this special relationship with Wolves anymore. Plus you are trying to make out the Wolves pack is all falling apart.

Bizarre

You do know there’s somewhere in between Uber positivity and doom mongering where people contemplate different outcomes

I’ll do what I want thanks

And once again, looking forward to seeing Lage can do well. Just pondering Mendes contribution

 

[Parkfieldswolf]

Admittedly over a long period of time, however......

1. Thelwell leaves Wolves and not replaced (how does Sellars feel about Mendes influence?)
2. Nuno leaves Wolves but we get another Mendes candidate as replacement
3. Nuno mysteriously misses out on two Prem jobs
4. Gattuso leaves Fiorentina after 2wks in job because of conflict over Mendes signings from Porto

Mendes still clearly looms very large at Molineux - but do we think the dynamic has changed at all for Fosun? Will the relationship help us (as it did in the summer of 2018) or hinder us with ill-fitting replacements (2020)? Do we think Fosun can make their own mind up on players, and if so, is Sellars really our only advisor?

Good assessment and let’s hope it’s the former as in 2018. Fosun & Mendes are inextricably linked and their business plans and aims are the same. Fosun obviously with no football knowledge rely on Mendes and I don’t see anything changing. As long as Mendes supplies us with decent players all will be good.

 

[Jay Jay de Wolf]

Bizarre

You do know there’s somewhere in between Uber positivity and doom mongering where people contemplate different outcomes

I’ll do what I want thanks

And once again, looking forward to seeing Lage can do well. Just pondering Mendes contribution

I find your OP bizzare and knee jerk reaction. Whereas I found previously all your posts as quite positive and pragmatic.
That's what it's all about differing opinions with most mixers.
No worries Wolves ay we

 

[Dawnwolf]

I really don't get the issue with Mendes, I think the relationship is a massive positive for us.

Nuno
Neves
Jota
Raul
Cav
Costa
Mouthino
Rui

All class signings at the time, probably unachievable without him.

I just don't see the issue, and mainly because if he offers us a player we don't want or the price is too high its our porogative to say no.

 

[Manic88]

“Jorge Mendes and the Mysterious case of the agent who worked against his client getting a new job”

the latest must read from the authors that bought you “Redrow built the north bank”, “Jez spent the parachute money on pies” and the Booker prize winner “Barcelona fullback isn’t good enough for Wolves”

 

[Stoichkov]

I find your OP bizzare and knee jerk reaction.

Seriously - read it again - it’s neither that for or against

“Knee jerk” ????!!!!

 

[Stoichkov]

Good assessment and let’s hope it’s the former as in 2018. Fosun & Mendes are inextricably linked and their business plans and aims are the same. Fosun obviously with no football knowledge rely on Mendes and I don’t see anything changing. As long as Mendes supplies us with decent players all will be good.

Thank you - can you tell @Jay Jay de Wolf - he’s up in arms for me having a go at Mendes .... which I’m not at all, I’m just querying what we’ll get next - signings like 2018 or 2020

Reasonable to ask I think!!!

 

[JayStringer]

Bringing this back for a moment. I was just reading a news link saying that Benfica need to raise 70 million is sales by the end of the month to balance their books.

We signed Neves cheap because Porto needed money fast. There was another money rush at Benfica last season. Monaco have had seasons when they've had to sell in a hurry. And when this happens Mendes moves his players around to another stop on the carousel.

It does appear to me - I stand to be corrected- that a defining feature of clubs who are truly under Mendes influence have periods of boom and bust in transfers. They get players in, but also run up big debts and have to sell players in a hurry.

And Wolves don't do that. We have to sell to break even on transfers, yes. But that's not the same boom & bust cycle as these other clubs, we're not suddenly faced with "we have 30 days to balance the books" panics.

So I would suggest the truth is exactly what Jeff has always said. Wolves aren't run by Mendes, or unduly influenced by him. He's close to the club and is a trusted advisor, sure. But we're not fully on his carousel.

 

[DanishWolf]

Bringing this back for a moment. I was just reading a news link saying that Benfica need to raise 70 million is sales by the end of the month to balance their books.

We signed Neves cheap because Porto needed money fast. There was another money rush at Benfica last season. Monaco have had seasons when they've had to sell in a hurry. And when this happens Mendes moves his players around to another stop on the carousel.

It does appear to me - I stand to be corrected- that a defining feature of clubs who are truly under Mendes influence have periods of boom and bust in transfers. They get players in, but also run up big debts and have to sell players in a hurry.

And Wolves don't do that. We have to sell to break even on transfers, yes. But that's not the same boom & bust cycle as these other clubs, we're not suddenly faced with "we have 30 days to balance the books" panics.

So I would suggest the truth is exactly what Jeff has always said. Wolves aren't run by Mendes, or unduly influenced by him. He's close to the club and is a trusted advisor, sure. But we're not fully on his carousel.

I tend to agree. However if we end up paying 70 million for two young Benfica players before the end of the month, then I do question what our role in that carousel is. If I my mind serves me right, Porto had the same challenge last summer, needing to raise money fast, and hey ho, there we were paying 35 million for Silva..

 

[JonahWolf]

Bringing this back for a moment. I was just reading a news link saying that Benfica need to raise 70 million is sales by the end of the month to balance their books.

We signed Neves cheap because Porto needed money fast. There was another money rush at Benfica last season. Monaco have had seasons when they've had to sell in a hurry. And when this happens Mendes moves his players around to another stop on the carousel.

It does appear to me - I stand to be corrected- that a defining feature of clubs who are truly under Mendes influence have periods of boom and bust in transfers. They get players in, but also run up big debts and have to sell players in a hurry.

And Wolves don't do that. We have to sell to break even on transfers, yes. But that's not the same boom & bust cycle as these other clubs, we're not suddenly faced with "we have 30 days to balance the books" panics.

So I would suggest the truth is exactly what Jeff has always said. Wolves aren't run by Mendes, or unduly influenced by him. He's close to the club and is a trusted advisor, sure. But we're not fully on his carousel.

I think that’s as much a feature of the respective leagues and their finances as anything.
Before the prem became the cash cow that it is, plenty English clubs ended up doing the same, spend spend spend, then if it goes wrong, or owner benevolence dries up, need a fire sale to survive.

Portuguese teams are constantly lurking from one financial meltdown to another, as they spend to try and win the league and/or make some progress in the champions league, but don’t have the enormous domestic TV money we do to cover it. Note no reports of fire sale at Porto this year for a change, we swelled their coffers with Fabio, plus champions league semis would have been worth a fortune.

Plenty of French teams have to operate vaguely similarly, trying to sneak in behind (or occasionally ahead) of PSG, high wages to established players, sell the most promising youngsters. Special case at the moment as they’ve all lost considerable sums through the TV deal collapse.

 

[WolfLing]

I tend to agree. However if we end up paying 70 million for two young Benfica players before the end of the month, then I do question what our role in that carousel is. If I my mind serves me right, Porto had the same challenge last summer, needing to raise money fast, and hey ho, there we were paying 35 million for Silva..

And only with time will we see that £35m on Silva was probably a very good deal for us.

We probably shouldn't have been spending £35m on a young backup striker to the detriment of other positions, but that doesn't make it a bad transfer, just bad timing.

I'd prefer to see Mendes pull some more Neves and Patricio rabbits out of the hat though!

 

[JayStringer]

I tend to agree. However if we end up paying 70 million for two young Benfica players before the end of the month, then I do question what our role in that carousel is. If I my mind serves me right, Porto had the same challenge last summer, needing to raise money fast, and hey ho, there we were paying 35 million for Silva..

I think there are definitely favours involved. If my take is right, then not being fully on the carousel means we're not an automatic stopping point for the players in his system, but by doing favours we also get favours.

Though I should say - the 35 million price tag for Silva doesn't bother me. I can see the logic in it as presented. One good season tends to take these kinds of wonder kids from nothing to 100 million. The Joao Felix approach. So Wolves overspent in the short term based on the idea that if they waited and he blossomed, he'd be out of our price range. That logic is sound enough for me (in relative football terms) that I don't necessarily think it needs to have been a favour to Mendes.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Bringing this back for a moment. I was just reading a news link saying that Benfica need to raise 70 million is sales by the end of the month to balance their books.

We signed Neves cheap because Porto needed money fast. There was another money rush at Benfica last season. Monaco have had seasons when they've had to sell in a hurry. And when this happens Mendes moves his players around to another stop on the carousel.

It does appear to me - I stand to be corrected- that a defining feature of clubs who are truly under Mendes influence have periods of boom and bust in transfers. They get players in, but also run up big debts and have to sell players in a hurry.

And Wolves don't do that. We have to sell to break even on transfers, yes. But that's not the same boom & bust cycle as these other clubs, we're not suddenly faced with "we have 30 days to balance the books" panics.

So I would suggest the truth is exactly what Jeff has always said. Wolves aren't run by Mendes, or unduly influenced by him. He's close to the club and is a trusted advisor, sure. But we're not fully on his carousel.

Benfica need cash because their President was in an election year last year so threw the cash around

 

[JayStringer]

And only with time will we see that £35m on Silva was probably a very good deal for us.

We probably shouldn't have been spending £35m on a young backup striker to the detriment of other positions, but that doesn't make it a bad transfer, just bad timing.

I'd prefer to see Mendes pull some more Neves and Patricio rabbits out of the hat though!

Agreed on all. I think Silva was a good deal, given his potential. But it also meant we massively underspent in other areas last summer. If you get the chance to overspend to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, the REAL Ronaldo, or even a Berbatov at 18, you do it, knowing what it will mean later. Will Silva become that level of player? I genuinely think he will. And we will benefit from it either on the pitch or in the bank balance. But it undeniably paid a part in our terrible season, too.

And hard hard agree that it's time we saw the benefit of some Mendes favours again. I guess....we could argue that we saw one very recently in Neto, but it does feel like it's our turn for another Neves/Patricio/Moutinho signing.

 

[JayStringer]

Benfica need cash because their President was in an election year last year so threw the cash around

Agreed, but I see that as part of the cycle...he threw the cash at the carousel, the carousel continues to turn.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Agreed, but I see that as part of the cycle...he threw the cash at the carousel, the carousel continues to turn.

Yeah not all Mendes but their net spend was £30M which is pretty sizeable for Portugal plus Vertonghen on a free on large wages.

 

[VancouverWolf]

Mendes

Yes , especially to your last line….
“So I would suggest the truth is exactly what Jeff has always said. Wolves aren't run by Mendes, or unduly influenced by him. He's close to the club and is a trusted advisor, sure. But we're not fully on his carousel.”

Since Fosun came into the game, Wolves have helped Mendes get more of his clients into the PL and as a result Mendes reputation and business has improved because of that.
If anything, Mendes is grateful to Wolves.….we’ve done so much to help him.
It’s Jeff who runs Wolves….not Mendes.

 

[Stoichkov]

Gattuso was ‘earmarked’ for wolves allegedly. I take what this journo says with a pinch of salt as he’s very one-eyed about Mendes

https://twitter.com/x/status/1409589087707688964

 

[Flump]

Gattuso was ‘earmarked’ for wolves allegedly. I take what this journo says with a pinch of salt as he’s very one-eyed about Mendes

Like you say, I think that needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt - he's trying to make a manager having a buy-out clause sound sensational, when it's pretty universal.

 

[Stoichkov]

Like you say, I think that needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt - he's trying to make a manager having a buy-out clause sound sensational, when it's pretty universal.

more than that, this journo jumps on everything mendes does as pure evil

not very objective, and life is rarely like that. Mendes is actually very highly thought of in large parts of the game

so while i do ponder about Mendes' tentacles getting everywhere for financial gain, i'm still pretty confident Fosun hold the upper hand in the relationship when it comes to wolves - even if he has great influence with us