Ten years of Fosun: The top five worst Wolves signings
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.
Among the highs and lows of Fosun’s ownership of Wolves, they have had their fair share of transfer failures.
Some of last season’s squad could easily have made this list after relegation to the Championship followed a period of decline.
In no particular order, here are our top five worst signings during Fosun’s 10 years of owning Wolves.
Fabio Silva
The striker was signed for £35million in 2020, as an 18-year-old, as Wolves smashed their transfer record.
He was described as a generational talent by former chairman Jeff Shi and although he does possess quality, it never worked out at Wolves.
He managed just five goals and six assists in 72 games and left on four different loan deals before leaving for Borussia Dortmund last summer in a deal worth up to £23million.
Patrick Cutrone
In an attempt to give more competition for Raul Jimenez, Italian striker Cutrone arrived from AC Milan for £16million in 2019.
He made 24 appearances in all competitions in the first half of the season before leaving on loan for Fiorentina.
Cutrone made a further four appearances in January 2021 but never played a senior Wolves game again, finishing with 28 appearances, three goals and four assists.
He had other loan spells at Valencia and Empoli before departing permanently for Como.
Goncalo Guedes
The forward joined in 2022 for £27.5million but never lived up to the transfer fee or fan expectation.
He put in consistent poor performances before loan spells with Benfica and Villarreal.
Guedes showed poor body language and attitude during his time at the club, particularly in the first six months, despite clearly being a talented player as he was called up to Portugal's squad for this summer's World Cup.
He ended his Wolves career with seven goals and six assists in 51 games after joining Real Sociedad.
Considering Guedes was the replacement for Morgan Gibbs-White, it proved to be a disastrous piece of business from Wolves.
Ki-Jana Hoever
The Dutchman signed from Liverpool in 2020 in a deal worth up to £13.5million but he never showed he was up to the task.
Disappointing performances, a public dressing down by Bruno Lage and four loan spells away from the club have left him with a poor reputation among Wolves fans.
He was given a chance in the first half of last season but never took it and is now back at the club in pre-season with one year left on his deal.
So far he has played just 33 times in six years.
Paul Gladon
The striker arrived just a month after Fosun bought Wolves in 2016 and was signed for just £1million after making an impressive start to the season with Dutch side Heracles Almelo in the Eredivisie.
He made three Wolves appearances in September of that year, two of them in the Championship, and failed to score before Walter Zenga was sacked and the striker found himself surplus to requirements under new boss Paul Lambert.
Gladon returned to Heracles on loan, before another temporary stay with St Truiden in Belgium, before leaving Wolves by mutual consent at the start of 2019.
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