Ten years of Fosun: The highs and lows of Jeff Shi at Wolves

This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the Chinese conglomerate’s ownership of the historic club and, in many people’s eyes, they are back to square one in the Championship.

Nine-and-a-half years of this journey came under the leadership of club chairman Jeff Shi - a man who saw his reputation among Wolves fans decline to a position where he was forced out of his role in December last year.

But that change in the board room was born from Shi’s unexplainable and inexcusable decisions that ultimately led to Wolves’ downfall.

To put it plainly, Shi is widely considered to be the main reason Wolves are now in the Championship.

But Shi’s reputation was not always in the gutter. In July 2016 the Fosun employee was installed as Wolves’ chairman as they bought the club for £30million from Steve Morgan and the excitement among supporters was palpable.

Shi was saying all the right things and promotion was being publicly and privately targeted.

Fosun’s scattergun approach to their first summer in charge ended in a chaotic season, as they sacked Kenny Jackett within days, missed out on Julen Lopetegui and then appointed Walter Zenga.

A total of 13 players arrived in the final weeks of the transfer window but a terrible start to the campaign resulted in Zenga being sacked and Paul Lambert coming in to keep Wolves up.

“We believe the club and the fans belong at the top of English football and getting there is our first and top priority,” Shi said.

That rush for promotion was clear as Wolves sacked Lambert and appointed Nuno Espirito Santo in the summer of 2017 and the start of the club’s success story under Fosun began.

Shi and Fosun’s relationship with Jorge Mendes and his Gestifute agency was the driving force behind the transfer strategy, as they made consistent, correct decisions.

Sporting director Kevin Thelwell was also highly thought of as he bridged the gap with players they needed with Championship experience, but the highlights were additions such as Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota and Willy Boly as the club built a team destined for promotion.

Wolves stormed to the Championship title with 99 points and the relationship between the owners, Nuno, players and fans was on a high.

That success continued with a stunning summer transfer window in 2018 as Wolves brought in stars such as Raul Jimenez, Joao Moutinho, Jonny Castro Otto, Adama Traore and Rui Patricio - as well as making other loan deals permanent.

Those additions, alongside Nuno’s signature back five formation, resulted in back-to-back seventh-placed finishes, the semi-final of the FA Cup and the quarter-final of the Europa League.

They were golden years, a squad that was built to perfection and one that created memories for a lifetime.

Those two seasons in the Premier League came at the right time for Shi, who had said previously in September 2018 that Wolves could one day overtake Manchester City.

He said: "In the future? Yes, why not?

"I do hope we can be the top club in the world. But it's not so useful to talk too much about that now.

"It's step by step. If you ask me the long-term goal, of course, we want to be as good as Man City, even better than them in the future.

"We know how much Man City have invested into their squads and personally I don't think if you give me 10 years or 30 years, it's not impossible to match. Football is not all about money.

"We can learn from them and maybe we can do better than them, with the people, the team, the coach, the players.

"If you combine that, maybe you can do something sooner than them or invest less and achieve the same goals."

But those comments would eventually come back to haunt him as Wolves went through a period of managed decline, circling the relegation drain and eventually dropping to the Championship.

He made consistent mistakes in recruitment and the £35million club record signing of teenager Fabio Silva in 2020 proved to be one of the most embarrassing pieces of business under the chairman, as he too often relied on Mendes for inspiration.

Sacking Nuno in 2021 was the start of the downfall as Shi chopped and changed managers in a desperate search for success.

This attempt to recreate what had come before was also, for the most part, taking place during a change in operational strategy from the very top.

The money had dried up, Fosun were investing less and Wolves were relying on selling their best players and reinvesting the money.

Some summers they did not spend enough and the squad suffered, while in other summers they spent enough but spent it incredibly badly - evidenced by the six signings last year for more than £100million, as Wolves significantly weakened their side.

The recruitment department were often being overlooked for Mendes signings and the disorganised approach to transfer windows eventually caught up with the club.

Behind the scenes, Shi often showed his heart was in the right place in an attempt to get it right at Wolves, but that did not make him any easier to work with.

An Express & Star source, who wished to stay anonymous, described Shi as a “tough task master” who had an unusual way of working.

He told some staff during transfer windows that it was best for them to sleep at Compton because he would inevitably call in the early hours of the morning with a request or idea, while Shi was also known at Wolves for harebrained schemes and ways of building the Wolves brand that were nothing to do with football.

Most of those ideas never got off the ground, but his desire to split his focus was detrimental to the club at a time when they needed to focus on being a football club first.

Alongside the consistent mistakes, Shi had poor communication skills and that massively impacted his relationship with fans.

Internally and externally he did a bad job at communicating Fosun’s change in direction, while he tripped up in almost every rare interview he did.

In particular, in the BBC WM interview days before he was sacked, he claimed relegation was a “technical word” and played down the importance of dropping to the Championship.

Previously, in his columns in the Express & Star he said: “If you only pursue trophies or consistent European football, Wolves might not be an ideal choice.”

That choice of words, in May 2024, was in poor taste, ill-judged and caused a storm from supporters that was completely avoidable if Shi understood the fans, the city and the football club properly.

Fans were constantly bemused and angered by his comments - and decisions such as the 2024 season ticket price hike - while he very rarely showed any contrition or ability to take accountability.

It is also fair to say that not everyone had the same experience with Shi and former midfielder Dave Edwards, who was in the squad when Fosun took over in 2016 before leaving in 2017, had a positive encounter.

“I had a good relationship with Jeff, I thought he was great,” Edwards said.

“I haven't had the privilege of speaking to Jeff more recently, but in my early time at the club and when I left the football club, he was amazing with me.

“I thought he was great. He was very open, he wanted to learn. He was very accessible and was always at the training ground.

“If you ever wanted meetings about certain things, he was quick to welcome you into his office and have a chat.

“Jeff himself, I thought, was brilliant at that time. I haven't got a negative thing to say about him.

“When I left he was a class act. He rang me and said he was disappointed I was going but understood. He wrote me a letter as well, thanking me for all my service at Wolves.

“I thought he was a real class act at the time. It's just a shame the way it ended for Jeff over the last few years.”

Shi remains the chairman and CEO of Fosun Sports Group, the subsidiary company of Fosun, but new club chairman Nathan Shi insists his predecessor has ‘zero involvement’ at Wolves.

Undoubtedly J.Shi had good moments at Wolves and helped shape an incredibly successful era, but the failures that followed meant there was no other acceptable conclusion than his departure.

Now under N.Shi, it is paramount they do not make the same mistakes again.

Any sensible company would guard against that and Wolves’ immediate future relies on it.