Fosun could own Wolves 'forever'

The Chinese investment have previously talked about a 10-year ownership plan at Molineux.

Executive chairman Jeff Shi says that 10-year plan is still in place – but Fosun are now looking at Wolves as a longer-term asset.

"In Fosun, we have some assets where we’ll buy and sell, but some are very crucial assets which we’ll keep forever, now it looks like Wolves will become a kind of legacy for the Fosun group because it’s so important to us," Shi said.

"I had a discussion with (Fosun) chairman Guo (Guangchang); I asked him if Wolves win everything in the world will you sell it at a good price, he said: 'No, I will keep Wolves in Fosun forever'.

"If we keep it forever, it means we will try to keep investing, we will try to make the club better and better in the future, but our aims will not change, because if you want to keep it forever we have to help the club to be the best, else why are we keeping it?”

“When I was at the press conference at the beginning (in 2016), I said it’s a 10-year plan and three years for promotion – but it’s still a 10-year plan.

“We are still on the way and we were very serious when we said that we are aiming to take the club to the highest level in the world within 10 years or so. We are reaching something, but I think it’s harder and harder to reach the next level.

“If you want to break into the top six, top four, you’re competing with the big guys, but they have more revenue from their fanbase than you, they can spend more than you regarding Financial Fair Play, and the only way to beat them is to work harder than them, be brighter than them and try to do something different and unique.

“But the key is not only about the money, it’s about the people and if you have the best people in the industry, if you can motivate the people to work harder for the club, then sooner or later we can get there.”

Fosun are working hard to expand the Wolves brand across Europe, Asia and South America in particular.

Shi believes the club has unique characteristics to give them an edge in an extremely competitive market.

"There are problems happening in some clubs and what we can learn is to avoid that and we will have our unique strengths to compete with them; maybe Nuno is one of those, maybe Fosun will be one of them, maybe the fans will be one of them," he added.

“We will have our own identity, not only for the team, for the club. Wolves is the only Wolves in the world and if we can build something it’s harder to be copied and then we will have the base to compete with others for a long time.

“That’s what we are trying to do, and I think it’s also what Nuno is trying to do here."