'The tempo' - Jeff Shi reveals his thoughts on Wolves' nightmare season
Jeff Shi admitted Wolves’ current nightmare season may be down to selling too many players in the summer.
In an hour-long radio interview on Thursday night (December 11), Shi blamed getting the ‘tempo’ of the summer transfer window wrong, in a period which saw them lose quality players like Matheus Cunha, Rayan Aït-Nouri and Nelson Semedo, while bringing in unproven replacements.
Shi told BBC Radio WM that the club had managed transfer business well for several years but the ‘tempo’ of last summer’s business had not been successful.
"Why this year we were in a low moment, I think, maybe because the tempo, this tempo this year… we saw too many players [change] in one window,” said the Molineux executive chairman.
"And maybe compared with last season, we changed it by 50 or 40 per cent of the key list.
"Not only for Nelson, or Rayan or Cunha but some players came back from loan, whatever. So It’s a task to rebuild a team, but the Premier League is very tough.
"So if you can’t control the tempo very well and you need a longer time to rebuild the team, then the games will punish you.”
Shi denied Fosun had lost interest in the club, stating owner Guo Guangchang watches games live at 3am in China.
"I can tell you why they care,” said Shi. “The owner himself watched every game… even at 3am in China, so that’s the fact why he cares.”
Shi insisted he sees current head coach Rob Edwards as the man to rebuild the club, no matter which division they find themselves in next season. "I can say three years, at least,” he said of how long he sees Edwards remaining in charge.
