Express & Star

GALLERY: Wolves players arrive in Shanghai as historic China trip starts

Wolves have landed in Shanghai for the club’s historic visit to China.

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Nuno Espirito Santo and a 26-man squad arrived in the city on Sunday evening local time, roughly 11am BST.

They were greeted by local Wolves fans, with the players posing for selfies and signing autographs at their hotel in central Shanghai.

Among the group was young striker Austin Samuels, who has been drafted in to replace the departed Ivan Cavaleiro who joined Fulham on loan yesterday.

Wolves will play Newcastle United on Wednesday in Nanjing and then either Manchester City or West Ham in Shanghai on Saturday.

'Very short squad'

Nuno said on arrival: “It’s nice to be here. Fosun is next door, it’s important for us to meet with our ownership and Chairman Guo.

“Wolves is inside of a big financial group and we are delighted to be here.

“It’s going to be tough because we have a very short squad, we brought a lot of boys, under-18s to help us.

“We prepare ourselves, but at the same time we are in a different environment, so we have to be flexible, patient and try to do our job.

“The opposition is very good. We’re going to play against Newcastle and then we’ll see. The Asia Trophy is very important, a very good competition.”

Shanghai Wolves shop

As well as the two matches, a new Wolves shop will be opened in Shanghai on Monday, one of a series of off-field events taking place throughout the week.

Skipper Conor Coady added: “It has been a great welcome. We had a long flight coming over, but we’re happy to be here. It’s amazing because we don’t often come to places like this.

“We’ve got to remember where we were three years ago in the Championship, we weren’t getting these opportunities, so to be here now and see the amount of people who come out and look at what Wolves are doing is fantastic.

“We all know how good Fosun have been for Wolves over the last few years and how much they’ve done to move the club forward with the manager and players who’ve come in, so it’s great for us to be here in China.

“It’s about the football, it’s as simple as that. We’ve got a massive game which we’re really looking forward to. We want to enjoy China, experience everything about it, but we’re here for football and that will never change.

“You’ve got to work as hard as you possibly can in the heat to get yourself as fit as possible, because a week Thursday we have a huge game and we’re starting earlier than everybody else so we’ve got to make sure we’re doing it properly.”

  • Stay posted for all the latest news from Tim Spiers and Nathan Judah in China