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NEW: Why Wolves still have FFP concerns

In a summer fraught with challenges, Wolves have a financial minefield to navigate.

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Julen Lopetegui and Jeff Shi (Getty)

In one camp we have Julen Lopetegui, who is rightly calling for the right tools to do his job, and in the other camp we have Fosun, Wolves chairman Jeff Shi and a financial department attempting to find the right pieces to a very confusing puzzle.

The Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules mean a club can not make more than a £105million loss over a three-year period.

Wolves made a £46.1million loss in the 2021/22 financial year and early predictions for the 2022/23 financial year, which will likely be published in February or March, show Wolves are on course to lose somewhere in the region of £60million-£80million.

As a result, they currently need to make a profit this year in order to not breach the rules. Wolves are right on the edge of falling foul of those regulations, and must navigate them carefully.

To do that, the financial team must crunch the numbers to forecast the income and expenditure, hence the recent change in stance on transfer activity – to Lopetegui’s clear disappointment.

Those forecasts take in a huge array of factors including TV revenue, player wages and bonuses, Premier League money for the final league position and player purchases and sales.