Matt Maher: Summer shake-up gives Fosun chance to restore belief in Wolves stewardship

The first two were arguably the best two players on the books and though Sarabia’s influence wasn’t as great, the Spain international was responsible for delivering several important moments across his two-and-a-half years at Molineux.

With big doubts still surrounding the future of captain Nelson Semedo, there is no longer any doubt a sizeable shake-up is on the cards.

That’s before you even begin to take into account off-field developments and the departure of sporting director Matt Hobbs.

The appointment of Domenico Teti, who previously worked with head coach Vitor Pereira at Al Shabab, as the club’s new technical director is due to be announced in the coming days. There are suggestions, not yet confirmed, that head of professional development Matt Jackson will take a more prominent role in transfer negotiations.

It is quite the restructure though, at the same time, it might also be noted chairman Jeff Shi, the man who has signed off on all the big decisions at Molineux since Fosun’s takeover nine years ago, remains firmly in post.

For Shi and the ownership group, this feels a pivotal window, arguably the most important in years. After three consecutive bottom eight finishes and a 2024-25 season which for the first six months at least was something of a nightmare, there was always a sense something, somewhere needed to change. 

The off-field changes suggest Fosun agree but these are moves which need to work. Wolves might have been rejuvenated thanks to the work of Pereira but they still finished 16th in the table and more than any other summer window in recent memory this is one where they must get their recruitment right. 

Too often in recent years, it has been rather too hit-and-miss.

Granted, there remain some very good players in the squad. Joao Gomes counts among the best bargain buys of the Fosun era, while centre-back Emmanuel Agbadou is already well on course to earn inclusion in that bracket. With Jorgen Strand Larsen having enjoyed a more than decent first season up front, there are the makings of a more than decent spine to the team.

At the same time, it cannot be denied the departures of Cunha and Ait-Nouri have left big holes to fill. 

Cunha might have had his faults, most particularly when it came to keeping his cool. But he was also Wolves’ best player and comfortably their star of the season, the one shining light in those very dark days through November and December. There weren’t too many players, across the entire Premier League, capable of producing moments of magic with the same regularity as the Brazilian.

Ait-Nouri, meanwhile, earned his move to Manchester City after producing his most consistent season since first joining Wolves in 2020. It says plenty he has gone to the most successful English club team of the past decade. When it comes to recruitment, City do not tend to make too many mistakes.

Wolves must now find replacements for both players and the biggest question hanging over the next few months is just how much they will lean on the services of Jorge Mendes and his Gestifute agency?

Mendes, of course, has been around from the start. For the first few years of Fosun’s ownership, he effectively operated as de facto sporting director, no matter how much the club might have tried to deny it.

It was Gestifute which was largely responsible for the two most successful summers of the Fosun era so far, the 2017 window which brought in Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota and Willy Boly to set-up the charge to promotion and the equally spectacular follow-up 12 months later, featuring Joao Moutinho, Rui Patricio and Raul Jimenez as Wolves attacked the Premier League. 

Those were the days when Shi used to talk about Wolves becoming the biggest club in the world and such was the sense of momentum it did not feel like an entirely impossible dream.

Now seven years since Wolves first made their return to the Premier League, the landscape has changed. These days it isn’t easy to decipher precisely what the ambition is? At the very least, plans for world domination have been put on permanent hiatus. That wouldn’t be so bad, were it not for the sense survival in the top-flight is now Fosun’s primary aim.

This summer, therefore, is also about ownership dispelling that suggestion and restoring some belief into their stewardship through their actions.

The story of the previous two summers, let’s not forget, has been of head coaches not being backed in the manner they believed they should. First, Julen Lopetegui’s frustrations at what he claimed were unkept promises prompted his exit just days before the start of the 2023-24 season. One year later, Wolves’ failure to replace Max Kilman left Gary O’Neil with an unbalanced squad. No doubt the latter made mistakes which contributed to his dramatic downfall but there was also a feeling of the club entering the season underpowered.

Pereira’s revival act has offered Fosun another chance to re-set and the off-field changes appear geared to giving the head coach, himself a Mendes recruit, greater control.

But the departures of Cunha, Ait-Nouri and Sarabia mean Wolves’ squad is already weaker. No matter who is ultimately responsible for doing the buying this summer, they need to get it right.