[dangerman]

Ifs, buts and maybes.

Let's be honest if we were in the position Wolves were in right now we'd still be moaning. 

I think for us to find a buyer in this climate we're going to have to fall a bit further unfortunately. We've just got to hope we can hold on similar to Blues have in recent years until someone comes along.

The positive is that the longer it goes on the less we will be valued and the more attractive we may appear. The negative is that we could end up with anyone with a bit of money buying us.

[baggiejohn]

An interesting article, and proof at last that we were the first choice for Fosun. What might have been eh? And nice to see an owner with integrity in Thompson, unlike the ‘lifelong baggies fan’…..

Not sure first choice is an accurate description.

There was an article written about the time of the acqisition which took a different view.

Allegedly Fosun were keen to extend their portfolio, & saw football as a potential market.
They weren't keen to get into club ownership, but saw opportunities in player trading.
The relationship with Mendes, was intended to be pivotal to the plan. Unfortunately the decision that player registrations could only be owned by football clubs put paid to the original plan. (Following the Tevez/Mascherano at WHU case).
As a consequence, Fosun put feelers out for a club. As the article says £200 million for a vehicle to buy & sell players is a lot less attractive than £30 million.

Just looked at WWFC accounts & over a 5 year period from 2016 to 2021 there intangible asset value increased from circa £8 million to circa £160 million.

At the same time, there's a significant debt to the owners of around £120 million.

Looks as though their starting to cash that in now.

[robnewbold]

Hopefully there are still guys out their looking to buy a football club.......anyone, please, anyone.

[Maresca Was A Baggie]

SKY have a lot to answer for. They started this chain of events, where clubs started chasing the dream, with many spending beyond their means. Only mega rich owners can afford to 'play' with football clubs. 99% of clubs will not bring a return on an investors money. It's literally a play thing. As other owners have found out, and are now trying to recoup their money. Lai thought he could make a buck out of us and has come unstuck. Fosun are also realising its just a money pit. If the mega rich Arabs get bored with football, then several teams could come falling down like a pack of cards. Football in general needs a 'Reset'.

[liverbaggie]

I have said previously that you are a very lucky person if you make money as a football club owner
You may pay yourself a good salaryand you may get a dividend but when selling is a different ball game especially if you have personally plowed your own cash into it, its a mega rich persons plaything thats it
Nothing to do with Sky imo

[Barrington]

The trouble is clubs spending way too much on transfer fees and wages. No-one is forcing them to do this. They do it speculatively to try to get into the Champions league etc but they have the choice not to do this. If the oil owned clubs want to break FFP and win hollow trophies then let them. Every club should just cut their cloth accordingly and not over-extend themselves on wages. Pretty simple really.

[overseas baggie]

The trouble is clubs spending way too much on transfer fees and wages. No-one is forcing them to do this. They do it speculatively to try to get into the Champions league etc but they have the choice not to do this. If the oil owned clubs want to break FFP and win hollow trophies then let them. Every club should just cut their cloth accordingly and not over-extend themselves on wages. Pretty simple really.

A total wage cap is the only way that will ever work.  It needn’t be a specific monetary limit but could be capped at say 75% of total income over an average of a 3 year cycle.

[johnny Cash]

A total wage cap is the only way that will ever work.  It needn’t be a specific monetary limit but could be capped at say 75% of total income over an average of a 3 year cycle.

The problem with a wage cap based on revenue is that it helps maintain the status quo.

[Hull Baggie]

The trouble is clubs spending way too much on transfer fees and wages. No-one is forcing them to do this. They do it speculatively to try to get into the Champions league etc but they have the choice not to do this. If the oil owned clubs want to break FFP and win hollow trophies then let them. Every club should just cut their cloth accordingly and not over-extend themselves on wages. Pretty simple really.

then the fans would just accuse their clubs of "lacking ambition" and we'd hear a lot more of the "what's the point in just making up the numbers" type comments.

[Blowee]

I’m wondering whether ultimately a Super League is inevitable. For all but the top three or four clubs The Premier League is becoming irrelevant. Surely, fans of Man City etc. will tire of wins against the like of Luton and clubs like Everton will be bored of the battle to safely remain in mid table? I actually find the Championship more entertaining. Controversial but inevitable?

[paulosull]

Is the way forward being gobbled up by a bigger sport franchise which most probably will come from America?

[Droitwich Baggie]

We need someone from the Emirate states

[MBWBA]

Should have sold to the Americans that own Ipswich when they came wanting to buy us.

[baggie96]

Chesnais buying a partial stake? Anyone heard anything?

[Droitwich Baggie]

Chesnais buying a partial stake? Anyone heard anything?

On Birmingham Live

[Hull Baggie]

On Birmingham Live

have you got a link to the story? All I'm seeing is stuff from yesterday or earlier!

[robnewbold]

SKY have a lot to answer for. They started this chain of events, where clubs started chasing the dream, with many spending beyond their means. Only mega rich owners can afford to 'play' with football clubs. 99% of clubs will not bring a return on an investors money. It's literally a play thing. As other owners have found out, and are now trying to recoup their money. Lai thought he could make a buck out of us and has come unstuck. Fosun are also realising its just a money pit. If the mega rich Arabs get bored with football, then several teams could come falling down like a pack of cards. Football in general needs a 'Reset'.

I think it was Jimmy Hill who started all this rubbish.

[Hull Baggie]

I think it was Jimmy Hill who started all this rubbish.

it was in a way..... he helped abolish the £20 a week maximum wage.

[iwastherein68]

it was in a way..... he helped abolish the £20 a week maximum wage.

He was and I remember it well . He publicly stated that "Johnny Haynes is worth £100 per week" Johnny said i will have some of that thank you .................and so it began.

[OldburyWBA]

I don't think we can blame Jimmy Hill for all this going on these days, all he was doing was trying to get players a fair wage as during the Summer they were getting little and at times nothing so had to get another job as well as playing the game. No disputing that it gave some of them a better living than the average bloke in the street but I doubt all players were earning anywhere near that much That was early 60's and I read somewhere only a few days ago that Haynes was still on £100 a week towards the end of his time at Fulham

All this is down to Sky who think they invented the game in 1992 and led individuals like Lai and other owners to clubs like us.

[OhBilics]

I don't think we can blame Jimmy Hill for all this going on these days, all he was doing was trying to get players a fair wage as during the Summer they were getting little and at times nothing

I think he was also involved in getting shirt sponsorship started. If my memory serves me correctly (and let's be honest, it usually doesn't!), he went on TV saying he'd rename Coventry to Coventry Asprin or some such if it didn't go through. No shirt sponsorship might not mean no Sky, but I imagine it's part of why they got involved.

[OldburyWBA]

I think he was also involved in getting shirt sponsorship started. If my memory serves me correctly (and let's be honest, it usually doesn't!), he went on TV saying he'd rename Coventry to Coventry Asprin or some such if it didn't go through. No shirt sponsorship might not mean no Sky, but I imagine it's part of why they got involved.

I think Sky got involved more so for tv rights around the World, shirt sponsorship had been going for a few years beforehand. Not saying it may have not given them a few ideas.

[Albion79]

Chris Lepowski saying the talk of partial investment isnt good news.

Says WBA holdings have defauled on their loan from Warmfront Holdings and they
(Warmfront Holdings) are now looking to take shares instead so its not them actually investing anything, they just want a bit of the pie as we havent repaid them.

[zippyandbungle]

This makes for painful reading, comments from wolves chairman:
https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2023/08/09/jeff-shi-we-nearly-bought-the-west-brom-and-nuno-was-going-to-be-boss/

“I flew over here and had talks with Jeremy Peace [Albion’s chairman] but the deal failed because we thought the price was not right. It was £200million for a team that would find it very hard to stay up in the Premier League. You can pay £200m but you still have to find another £100m to buy players. When we spoke with West Brom I met Nuno [Espirito Santo] once in a restaurant to talk about the chance of taking him there. Jorge then said to us, ‘Jeff if you are talking with West Brom why aren’t you talking with other clubs?’ so I agreed and it went from there".

Jeremy Peace sold Albion for every penny he could get for himself with no commitments for any investment in the club. Compare that to Steve Morgan sold Wolves for £30m - the same price he paid to buy the club with a commitment Fosun would invest £100m into the club.

This quote from Jex Moxey is also revealing: "It’s always worth mentioning that we were never going to sell to anyone unless they were credible. There was a sense of responsibility among all of us and Steve, as the owner, had a strong professionalism about doing what was right. His reputation and the club’s reputation were too important to sell to someone who wasn’t going to help the club progress."

Lai is every inch Jeremy Peace's legacy. I think as a fanbase we have every right to be furious that our former chairman could not see past his bank balance. Not to mention that loan his took out against the club to allegedly fund him hoovering up shares that has never been explained.

But most wolves fans and lopetigu aren’t agreeing tonight are they ??

[BalisPen]

Chris Lepowski saying the talk of partial investment isnt good news.

Says WBA holdings have defauled on their loan from Warmfront Holdings and they
(Warmfront Holdings) are now looking to take shares instead so its not them actually investing anything, they just want a bit of the pie as we havent repaid them.

It wouldn't surprise me if our brilliant former owner or his sister are behind Warmftont.

He's ready to pounce on a distressed business from within so he can shaft us all all over again.