Ten years of Fosun: The biggest disasters
Throughout this month, the Express & Star are building up to the 10-year anniversary of Fosun buying Wolves with a series of articles detailing the Chinese conglomerate's ownership of the Black Country club.
Wolves had enjoyed a remarkable rise during the first part of the Fosun era, but the next chapter would prove much more challenging.
European football would be swapped for relegation scraps and major transfer coups would be traded for debilitating player sales.
And here, we reflect on the biggest disasters of those difficult years for the Old Gold.
Trouble brewing
The first signs of struggle came when Bruno Lage was axed following a disastrous start to the 2022-23 campaign.
Lage had guided Wolves to just one win from their opening eight league games - while caretaker Steve Davis won just one of the next seven.
Ex-Spain and Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui took over after the World Cup in Qatar in winter 2022 and had guided Wolves to memorable wins over Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Aston Villa.
Wolves preserved their top-flight status, but there were low moments - including an infamous 6-0 drubbing at Brighton in late April 2023.
Lopetegui’s abrupt exit
Wolves spent the summer of 2023 attempting to balance the books due to PSR rules, but Lopetegui soon became irked by the limited sources.
Ruben Neves was sold to Al Hilal for £47million, Matheus Nunes joined Manchester City for £53million and Raul Jimenez left for Fulham. Joao Moutinho, Adama Traore, Conor Coady and Nathan Collins also departed that same summer.
And just five days before the 2023-24 season was due to get underway, the Spaniard left his post and was quickly replaced by Gary O’Neil.
VAR decisions 2023-24
O’Neil hit out at VAR decisions on a number of occasions during his Wolves tenure.
The campaign started with Andre Onana colliding with Sasa Kalajdzic in an opening day defeat at Manchester United.
Referee Simon Hooper waved play on and VAR official Michael Salisbury also decided not to intervene.
Both officials were removed from Premier League appointments the following weekend and PGMOL admitted that a penalty should’ve been awarded.
Several more controversial incidents followed throughout the season and O’Neil regularly voiced his disapproval towards VAR in particular.
Losing key players
A host of key players began to head for the exit door, but there was very little promise in terms of those that replaced them.
Between 2023 and 2025, Wolves sold Neves, Nunes, Max Kilman, Pedro Neto, Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri among others.
2025-26: Unwanted records
Wolves failed to win any of their opening 19 league games - setting a new record for the longest winless start to a Premier League season.
Vitor Pereira was sacked 10 games into that wretched run, but Wolves inevitably succumbed to relegation when they finished rock bottom of the division under his successor Rob Edwards.
In total, Wolves registered just three league wins and scored only 27 goals, and Edwards was later axed.
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