Steve Morgan: We're ready to step up
Wolves chairman Steve Morgan believes the team is in 'as good a shape as anybody' with the long-awaited start of the Championship season just days away.
And Morgan has reiterated his desire to complete the £40million redevelopment of Molineux.
The 62-year-old has been at Wolves for eight years now since taking over from the late Sir Jack Hayward.
He has overseen a rollercoaster period in the club's long history, with Wolves promoted to the Premier League in 2009 and then relegated to the Championship in 2012 and then League One in 2013.
With the club on the rise and aiming once again for the Premier League, Morgan has given a rare interview – and confirmed his intentions to remain at the club.
"Sir Jack said when he was alive that I'd had a heart transplant to Wolverhampton and I think it's a bit more than a heart transplant – it's a whole body transplant," Morgan said.
"So that's what Wolverhampton's become to mean to me."
This summer Wolves have so far spent around £2.5m bringing in midfielders Jed Wallace from Portsmouth and Conor Coady from Huddersfield.
Youngster Sylvain Deslandes has also joined from Caen but is expected to be in the under-21 squad this season.
Striker Adam Le Fondre has joined on loan from Cardiff and Liverpool winger Sheyi Ojo is expected to follow this week on a temporary deal. And Morgan said he felt the squad was in good shape ahead of the 2015/16 Championship campaign, for which Wolves are one of the favourites for promotion.
"We've invested several millions on players so far this season," he said. "We've added two or three players to it and I think they will definitely strengthen the squad and there's still probably one or two to come in yet.
"I do feel we're in as good a shape as anybody."
When Morgan joined the club he set about overhauling it from top to bottom, overseeing huge investment in the stadium, the training ground and the team.
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Millions were spent on financing promotion to the Premier League, and millions more on unsuccessfully trying to establish Wolves in the top flight.
Off the field Morgan has backed a £50m redevelopment of Compton Park, which has seen new state-of-the-art academy facilities built, as well as a new housing complex, a new St Edmund's Catholic Academy and a redevelopment of Linden Lea Tennis Club.
The Compton Park development will feature 55 luxury four and five-bedroom houses valued at £700,000 each.
The academy facilities in particular are crucial to Wolves' future and head coach Kenny Jackett is keen to ensure as many academy graduates make it through to the Wolves first team as possible.
And at Molineux Morgan is overseeing a £40m revamp which will eventually see the Steve Bull and Sir Jack Hayward stands rebuilt to expand the stadium's capacity to around 37,000.
The first phase of that £40m redevelopment – the new Stan Cullis stand – has been completed with a new museum and club shop among its impressive facilities.
And Morgan insisted that the remainder of the project would be completed, despite it being on hold while the team's fortunes suffered and priorities laid elsewhere including with the new academy building.
"When I first came to the club we didn't own most of our own ground," he said.
"We didn't have any longevity on our away visiting car park. All those issues are sorted out now – we own all of the land around us now.
"We've invested very, very heavily in the academy. The rest of the stand will come – it's also a chicken and egg because we actually need to fill what we've got."
