Q&A: Why are Fosun holding on to the club?

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Our BBC Radio WM reporter Mike Taylor has been answering your questions surrounding Wolves' current ownership.

Brian asked: Why are Fosun holding on to the club and risking relegation every season? Would they consider appointing an experienced director of football to allow Jeff Shi to run the business side?

Mike answered: "We all want to win something - winning the league will require a lot of luck but winning trophies or getting into Europe is imaginable," said Jeff Shi to the Telegraph last autumn.

It is imaginable but difficult, and appreciably more difficult in the context of the club's wish to be financially self-sustaining.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be self-sustaining. Most other businesses - and one presumes most of the others in Fosun's business empire - are expected to do that.

We might agree that football would be in a healthier place if all clubs agreed to be financially self-sustaining in the future, but dream on. Most, especially those challenging for the sort of honours Wolves aspire to, are not.

If you want to sit at the high-rollers table, you better put some money down.

In that environment, the path to achieving Shi's stated aims is narrower still. So what else, in Fosun's opinion, is Wolves for? Is it enough to merely occupy a space in the Premier League, as some sort of status symbol on their business empire and a brand to shift Wolves-branded products around the world? If so, fine.

However tough some of the recent seasons have been, Wolves are still a top-flight club. For much of the 30 years before Fosun arrived, they weren't. Fosun are good at business but they have chosen a hard road that is difficult to turn off.

Sell up now and it is hard to imagine they could recoup all of their investment. Fail to spend enough to stay in the Premier League and their asset will be worth far less.

Prestige doesn't often come cheap.

Sporting Director Matt Hobbs is essentially fulfilling the role you describe, though his standing with Wolves fans has dipped over the last year. Some of his decisions last summer aged badly in the first half of this season. But although they left it late in the mid-season transfer window, Wolves got it right.

The manager identified the weaknesses and the club bought in players to address them, at what appears so far to be reasonable prices. That's how it's supposed to work.

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