Wolves banter 2

23 Oct 2025 08:38:31
I would be over the moon to be proved wrong this Sunday, a convincing win fantastic performance and VP remains. Unfortunately just can't see such an upturn in performance happening, either way I think Jeff will decide to keep VP for sometime yet. He will give him a few more games, if results are poor then maybe after Fulham, that is if he can convince someone mad enough to take over. Sad to say our club is not the most attractive at the moment, in saying this it is still a club in the PL and surely someone will see it as a good challenge 🤞👍

23 Oct 2025 09:01:04
Burnley know they will be amongst the relegation fight. They will come to Molineux and set up to play defensive football and hit us on the break. They've done this on the last few occasions and will do the same again. We won't be able to break them down.

23 Oct 2025 09:09:35
‘if he can convince someone mad enough to take over’
That’s the point though isn’t it? We are now such a basket case that the only managers we would be able to ‘attract’ would be has beens young unproven hopefuls or unknown wannabe’s from abroad.
I can see a situation similar to when we sacked MM and then hadn’t got a clue who to replace him with - nearly went for Bruce, and then after various disastrous appointments ultimately ended up with Dean Saunders.
Different owners, same mind boggling levels of incompetence.
Mind you I’ve been saying that since 1964.
Take a bow John Ireland, Harry Marshall, The Bhattis, et al ….

23 Oct 2025 09:15:31
Hoping for a win but Burnley won’t be a push over

23 Oct 2025 09:45:53
Your not wrong 3G and maybe the reason for the levels of disappointment that many of us feel with Fosun. At last I thought excellent owners that want to take this club to the top or thereabouts.

Without going over old ground, something changed, and it's been downhill ever since. Even so, I thought Fosun won't let Wolves be relegated and that may yet be the case, however, after the Summer window I started to doubt that thought with some justification given the mess we're in again.

23 Oct 2025 11:32:01
Long, football is a business at the end of the day. There's no way in hell that Fosun would voluntarily let Wolves be relegated as that would destroy their business investment. It's not part of the plan, although some fans think so. But you're right, something changed. We can't have this relegation battle season after season, it's death by a thousand cuts. The owner should replace Jeff with a chairman or CEO with top level experience in England, and start again with that 10-year business plan from 2016.

23 Oct 2025 12:13:00
I agree Deep, if Fosun are sticking around, which appears to be the case, they should replace Jeff with someone who has experience and interest in the PL and football. Unless of course they are happy with the performance of Jeff, not sure how they can be, although if they just want to survive year on year, guess so far that is what he has achieved, must be some reason he still here.

23 Oct 2025 12:35:03
In any normal very competitive business markets if a CEO had performed as poorly as Shi has over the past few years he would have been fired. So not sure if it's some kind of loyalty being shown to Shi by Fosun, or they're content just taking the TV money and not interested in increasing revenue so we can retain our better players, which in turn encourages better players to join. Success although not guaranteed, but more likely than our continual relegation battle brings in more revenue and the club gets a higher profile to attract further investment. In short why is Shi still at Wolves?

23 Oct 2025 14:04:00
Deep normally I would say you were obviously correct
However Fosun is a huge conglomerate and Wolves is a tiny and insignificant part of it.
Therefore Wolves role in the Fosun empire today is perhaps no more than that of a "milch cow".
Initially, before Covid, Fosun were rich and keen to build a football team that would be a status symbol and a brand to build a broader based leisure business on - e sports, music, fashion etc etc.
Post Covid however Fosun's finances fell apart and they had to rethink their approach to football.
Maybe the conversation went something along the lines of "This football lark is really easy. We buy cheap players and they play magnificently. Our investment has trebled or more. But we can make even more money if we simply sell off the players and buy more cheap ones"
Sadly as Nuno and the rest of the management team, ( plus presumably all moderately intelligent football fans), knew (and indeed Nuno even told Jeff) it would, that went totally wrong!
Consequently football was no longer quite so exciting and they were no longer feted as geniuses.
So the strategy changed from Fosun building a football centric business to football simply being a source of cash to support the rest of the group.
Jeff is presumably charged with extracting as much value as possible for Fosun for as long as possible.
Like a vampire keeping a victim alive, bleeding them regularly, but allowing them to recover just sufficiently so as to be bled again.
If however you misjudge how much blood that can be removed or how much effort needs to be put in to aid the recovery and the victim dies well so be it .
Do you honestly think anyone in China thinks about Wolves or cares other than about the amount of money it generates for Fosun.
If the worst happens and Wolves are relegated and Fosun presumably walks away, it, like the other bad investments made by Fosun, will simply be consigned to history.
With regard to destroying value with relegation sadly that ship has sailed.
Although you are right, normally if a club goes down it will be worth far less than it was in the Prem.
In Wolves case however who in their right mind even today would pay any sort of money for the husk of a club that Wolves have become. With its massive debt, modest income and awful playing squad it is pretty much already valueless. Consequently relegation, although potentially terminal for the club, is not the major disaster, for Fosun, that it normally would be.

23 Oct 2025 15:02:40
Totally agree Deep football is a business but it's also a sport so needs handling differently to a manufacturing or pharmaceutical company. Jeff doesn't seem to have the enthusiasm for the job he's being well paid for so Fosun should have acted on that years ago.

To be fair I think they planned to, remember Sky Sun I think his name was, he left Wolves to become Chairman of Grasshoppers. This I assume was his 'training' ready to replace Jeff at Wolves who wanted to focus on ESports. Unfortunately, Sky Sun left Fosun as he wanted to return to China and we got left with Jeff.

Fosun probably had no one else capable so Jeff's still here but probably doesn't want to be, imo. If does all go south who will be to blame him or Fosun for their lack of support in recent years?

23 Oct 2025 16:15:55
Should we blame? He openly admits to being more interested in Esport than football so isn't he simply a purse holder who does or dosnt depending on advice given.
So who's providing the advice? Who's saying what's required? Sure he may have denied expenditure but he's also guilty of wastefulness in buying duds.
He's not scouting em out or deciding our tactical requirements, so I'm not attributing him directly to performances. Ok hold him up for ground development (lack of) etc. but he's not directly responsible for results.
Bad advice, bad judgements further down the line maybe, departures maybe but it's not all Jeff.
I once said before do we really think Fosun care about Wolverhampton England UK? Tfig echoes that above. No its whatever they can take and football is a means, once we've gone they'll be gone.

23 Oct 2025 17:01:42
After reading the above I think Jeff has got something on Fosun and if he got the push I the the prefubial will hit the fan

23 Oct 2025 17:07:25
Wolves had a CEO-Laurie Dalrymple-by all accounts seemingly savvy, astute, ambitious for the club and business like-so of course he had to go.
Also stop using Covid as an excuse-it was (is) problematic for everyone, globally-yes Fosun being health focussed were maybe impacted more-but other club's fans are not using Covid as a systematic excuse for failure

23 Oct 2025 17:39:14
Not so sure that the list of want to be managers is quite as short as you suggest, 3G. After all, the reward for losing 7 and drawing 1 out of 8 consecutive Premier league games might well be a bumper 3 year contract!

24 Oct 2025 11:59:05
QS -I think the difference is whilst Covid affected all clubs, in the post Covid period in general owners supported their clubs to recover.
In Wolves case however the owners were, as you stated, badly affected by Covid and so Wolves are not only not being supported by Fosun but are actually being forced to support Fosun itself.
I doubt there is another club in the UK or even the World that has been forced to carry such an unsustainable obligation.
It is therefore fair to say that Covid has impacted Wolves to a far greater extent than it has any other club.

24 Oct 2025 14:25:51
tfiog

I'm not sure about that, but you make a fair argument for their case

23 Oct 2025 07:39:05
{Ed's Note - Seano_ has posted a new article entitled, Where is it all going wrong with Liverpool FC?

22 Oct 2025 16:05:28
It seems a little premature and disrespectful to speculate on who our next head coach will be when we have a head coach in place who kept us in the Premier League and needs our backing with the biggest game of the season approaching.
We are still in the Premier League and there are plenty of clubs in the Midlands who would envy our record under these owners.
If we do fall through the trap door Jeff and Fosun have a history of getting us promoted.

22 Oct 2025 16:29:47
I agree with you on the management front. VP pulled us out of the s**t last year and should get our full support, but given the relatively easy start to the season compared to last year we should have picked up more points. In addition we've played two now of the promoted sides and lost both. We can only support a manager so far and I suspect if we lose this home fixture against Burnley he'll be sacked. It definitely won't be an easy game but both he and the team should be given our full support. Regarding the owners, yes they were fantastic when they first took us over and certainly the envy of the other Midland clubs, even The Vile 'Mind the gap'. All that has changed now, Villa (Champions league), building a solid squad, good manager, ground expansion. Birmingham also. Ambitious owner and new ground etc, so I'm not too sure if we are the envy of the other Midlands sides. Maybe Sandwell!
If we do fall through the trap door I'm not so sure either Fosun will be there with us. I can see them asset stripping to recoup their losses or minimise anyway and just walking away.

22 Oct 2025 17:15:27
At last a voice of reason! I’m totally fed up with all the knee-jerk nonsense on who should be VP’s replacement. Some are so absurd it’s embarrassing! Fosun have already thrown three managers under the bus with Lopetegue jumping before he was pushed. Cross your fingers that VP can turn things around because if not we’re truly doomed! Not really sure about Fosuns ability or commitment though.

22 Oct 2025 17:57:06
Judging by what i've seen Burnley is his last chance.
But aslong as Shi is there nothing will change it's him that needs to go.

22 Oct 2025 18:49:42
VP will get our full support as did GON. But the facts are that the football philosophy under him is truly atrocious. If you want to back him, then fair play. I on the other hand want to see the team at least try and score.

22 Oct 2025 19:50:57
There may well be a disrespect element in discussing a replacement Goatmark, and indeed I don't think anyone is ungrateful after VP kept us up, but results speak for themselves, performances have been poor and tactics strange.

Sure we've come back and won the 2 carabao ties against weakened prem teams when we've been abit more adventurous but we've 2 points bottom and adrift, it would be foolish not to assess the situation as to remedying the situation.
As Rated states above it is commonly felt that Burnlley is VPs last chance to prove he can do it.

There is no question that VP will have all the support we can muster, but if things don't go as expected then llisten to the molineux to the faithful!

We can't afford to be accepting VP because he's a nice guy, we tolerated GON for too long for that reason. Whether Fosun shares the same concerns remain to be seen, if Jeff can break the 3year contract or is even willing to, who knows?

It's the support for the club that drives the speculation, the love and desire for the wolves that is calculated against VPs record. Let's hope he can turn it around.

22 Oct 2025 20:22:58
47 Vintage
What a poignant observation. Fosun have thrown three managers under the bus, spot on. Currently I am with VP albeit I am very concerned with the current situation. I wish Fosun would treat us as what we are as the lifeline of our team with the support we offer and bring us on board by sharing direction. Guess a lot to ask from the only Chinese owned team left in the premiership. They don't feel or understand our passion and history. Point is they come and go. we stay we always will.

23 Oct 2025 09:36:24
We are all wolves till we die fans, but can only
Comment on how its been so far.
Another loss vps history.
Then we will say he should av gone earlier ( me included).
Tbh. We look at moment like a championship outfit, can I see a turnaround immenient,
Not really.
But and its a big but
IF. We can somehow win on sunday
Thats got to be the fuse lighted for
Our real start to this season
Fingers crossed this is the case
Were all behind the team, whatever line up he puts out
So let's see after sundays game
Coyw

22 Oct 2025 10:57:58
What are people's thoughts on Sérgio Conceição? Full list of possibilities this morning:-

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 5/1
Gareth Southgate 7/1
Kevin Muscat 9/1
Sérgio Conceição 10/1
Brendan Rodgers 12/1
Erik Ten Hag 12/1
Roger Schmidt 12/1
Marco Silva 14/1
Roberto Mancini 14/1
Jesse Marsch 16/1
Julen Lopetegui 16/1
Marco Rose 16/1
Michael Carrick 16/1
Rafa Benitez 16/1
Rob Edwards 16/1
Ange Postecoglou 20/1
Mark Robins 20/1
Ralph Hasenhuttl 20/1
Ruud van Nistelrooy 20/1
Gary O'Neil 25/1
Kieran McKenna 25/1
Claude Puel 28/1
John Eustace 28/1
John Mousinho 33/1
Michael Beale 33/1
Phil Parkinson 33/1
Xavi 33/1
Oliver Glasner 40/1
Steven Gerrard 40/1
Luciano Spaletti 50/1
Mauricio Pochettino 50/1
Mick McCarthy 66/1
George Elokobi 100/1
Steve Bull 250/1

22 Oct 2025 12:30:24
Ange, Poch, Xavi, Spaletti, Mancini and Glasner will be beyond Shi's financial reach. Of the rest, the only ones I would consider is Ten Haag.

Edin Terzic is the one I would go for. Young, plays attacking football and has managed in a top league.

22 Oct 2025 13:58:03
That's actually a good call Wandering, attacking football is what we all need to watch, no more of this continuous sideways and backwards passing malarkey.

22 Oct 2025 14:37:08
Be nice if Jeff and Co were getting prepared, unfortunately not confident that they are. You are more than likely correct Wandering, Poch, etc out of reach. Lots of names there, guess everything depends on our next match, like others have said both performance and of course the result is important. Can’t really see anything changing now, if the performance is the same and we achieve a draw in my opinion we still have to change, only a good performance and win keeps VP in the role, for now.

22 Oct 2025 16:52:37
Why is no one mentioning Liam Rosenior for the role would do a great job in both short term and long term.

22 Oct 2025 07:39:12
{Ed's Note - Danny Pughnited has posted a new article entitled, A Turning Point For Manchester United Or Another False Dawn?

21 Oct 2025 21:27:31
Optional Dark Mode [see top right toggle], optional text size adjuster on rumours 1 and banter 1 pages at the start of the posts, and larger 'Create New Post' form now implemented on this site.

21 Oct 2025 21:41:10
Thank you for dark mode Ed mate makes it much easier to read for me.

{Ed033's Note - Excellent, thanks.

22 Oct 2025 12:20:11
Agree there Rated its a winner with me too Ed.

{Ed033's Note - Thanks.

22 Oct 2025 13:48:30
Like it - tks

22 Oct 2025 16:17:45
Not for me folks but I do respect everyone's opinion! Do like the ability to change font size though.

21 Oct 2025 16:38:51
Should we be looking for a younger manager with a more modern approach to the game and who would have a greater synergy and understanding with the players.
Someone like Frank Lampard or Xavi?

21 Oct 2025 17:43:27
Not sure why Xavi or Lampard would even be interested to be honest?!

21 Oct 2025 18:21:19
I agree Oxley, a young technical manager along the lines of Danny Rohl or Fabian Hurzeler.
I've no idea who, but I bet Brighton do and Fosun don't!

21 Oct 2025 19:59:24
I do think the club needs a 'name' someone who can get the players and the fans juices flowing again, but this is when we find out if the penny has really dropped with Fosun and money made available. I don't mean the Clubs money I mean theirs, just for a change.

Zinedine Zidane
Xavi Hernandez
Thiago Motta

All available as of a month ago. Get this wrong and we really are done for.

22 Oct 2025 06:32:01
Sadly Long, not sure our reputation in terms of Club management would attract any "name".
Personally, if my decision, I would have gone for Dyche.
I do not expect Forest to be relegated now, but us?.

22 Oct 2025 08:58:53
It's a valid point Rugeley, who would take the job without a top salary and money to spend in January, none of which of course is likely.

I can't get my head around this, 3-4 years on the trot now, it's bizarre what they've done. I wonder if Fosun have sucked what money they can out of the club then will cut their losses and sell the club off cheaply just to get out, relegated or not.

22 Oct 2025 09:43:17
Dyche is not for me, but I am surprised Fosun/Shi didn't target him. I suspect he'll steady the ship and keep Forest up, but that'll be the full extent of it. PL survival. That would surely suit Fosun, but not sure it'll satisfy Forest's owner who is far more ambitious than ours.

22 Oct 2025 12:26:48
Whatever happens after Burnley will be telling for our future longmynd. If we lose and Fosun replace VP with a 'big' name then maybe they're sticking around. Stick with VP and they're dallying along.
A win isn't confirmation of VPs ability tactically, the last 11/12 games have been. So I'd hope that if they care about the club Fosun will have been working on a suitable replacement and committed funds for Jan and onwards.
I can only dream, they cost nothing!

22 Oct 2025 14:03:07
All I know Abbey is that we need different decision makers at this club, as the current lot have been failing miserably for some years now. Maybe even someone that loves, understands and cares about football or have I just gate crashed one of your dreams.

21 Oct 2025 16:18:42
Big Ange and Coady! The dream team? FWAW .

21 Oct 2025 17:46:19
I really don't understand what it is that Ange has done to even get people suggesting him?! Spurs finished below us (with a team worth 3-5 times as much) and Forest never looked like winning so genuinely asking why people think he's the answer?

21 Oct 2025 18:43:59
Yes, his record at Spurs last season was poor in the league but the season before, he did well until injuries decimated the squad. I can't judge him on his Forest spell because 39 days isn't enough time to implement his ideas.

He is not the man for Wolves but he would be better than VP as Ange actually set his teams up on the front foot.

21 Oct 2025 20:18:37
Sounds like a worst nightmare ( Deano apart), Preston.

21 Oct 2025 13:29:34
Question if VP gets sacked who's the next manager personally 🤔 haven't got a clue.

21 Oct 2025 13:59:11
One of the sites:-
According to the latest figures, here are the current speculative prices:

Ole Gunnar Solskjær – 5/1
Gareth Southgate – 8/1
Kevin Muscat – 10/1
Sérgio Conceição – 11/1
Brendan Rodgers – 12/1
Danny Röhl – 12/1
Erik ten Hag – 12/1
Roger Schmidt – 12/1
Marco Silva – 14/1
Roberto Mancini - 14/1
Jesse Marsch – 16/1
Julen Lopetegui 16/1

21 Oct 2025 14:36:25
Id like Roberto Martinez DMac but can't see it happening

21 Oct 2025 15:05:39
I’d prefer Brendan Rogers but, let’s face it (and we’ve all said it or thought it), who’s going to want to come to a club with no support from above?

First the defeats, then the drop 😔

21 Oct 2025 15:57:16
Les B Wolf Wolves have got some decent players just need somebody to get the best out of them who don't know.

21 Oct 2025 16:27:00
Can't see any manager worth his salt would take the job on. Virtually nothing to work with on the playing side and no team spirit. This apathy runs right through the club, just look at results from the academy to the Under 21s. Perhaps the coaching is not up to scratch, I like Vp as a person but leaves a lot to be desired on the pitch. No other club would stand for the results we have suffered since earlier this year. And no sign of change.

21 Oct 2025 16:40:17
Out of interest. If we take 3 points against Burnley and Fulham, which frankly is essential, and narrow losses against Chelsea in cup and league, would people have any more faith that the management team can do the job?

21 Oct 2025 16:41:50
Give ole the job
Doubt we could get anyone else

21 Oct 2025 17:51:37
That's a difficult one molineuxway, 6 points+ would get the confidence up, we'd maybe start believing, but wether VP could maintain the ride is questionable. We had the 6 wins but look what has happened since.
No I think Burnley is the litmus test for him a loss and he should go, a win is only a stay of execution, and every game after until he's proven.
Things are such a mess maybe it'd be better to have the clean break and restart.
Of course we're back to wondering who'd take our poison challace and being beware of the devil we know.

21 Oct 2025 17:55:41
Got to say that a result against Burnley whist probable is not the turning point. The performance is everything.
We have not only lot all league games but the style of football is very boring and let’s face it very poor.
If VP can’t turn it around in the next couple of games then it tie to pull the plug.
Who next I hear you cry. Well personally I would go for Muscat or Marco Silva.

21 Oct 2025 18:52:24
Again though Marco Silva is running his contract down in anticipation for a move to a bigger club. Do we honestly think we are currently a more appealing option than Fulham?! Sorry but I just can't see it, think our only applicants will be from outside the league (Champ or abroad).

21 Oct 2025 20:46:30
It will be BullysBoy. This confirms exactly how much of a laughing stock Jeff has turned the club into.

22 Oct 2025 07:45:49
Really shows what a desperate situation we are in when a result against Burnley is so important and not guaranteed!

I believe that we have a squad of talented players but a coaching team who have managed to extinguish any semblance of confidence and willingness to play for the club. Wholesale change in the way the club is run is required before we can expect any progress.

21 Oct 2025 13:17:43
OK
We aont going to win the league and playing baggies next season.
I sm only going I what I have been told miracles can happen
But not at wolves.