Matt Maher: Are Uncle Jorge and Wolves now a dysfunctional family?

In that time both Albion and Villa have also axed managers and sourced replacements, the latter in the space of just 96 hours when Steven Gerrard went out of the door and Unai Emery arrived.

Yet at Wolves, it is questionable we will discover the identity of Lage’s successor inside 96 days.

Though it is true you cannot rush an appointment so important as this one, neither can you allow things to drift and right now Wolves risk looking a club lacking leadership and direction.

Frustrations among an increasingly restless fanbase won’t have been eased by noting the role Jorge Mendes, the agent so inextricably linked to Molineux since Fosun’s 2016 takeover through their stake in his Gestifute agency, played in assisting one of their rivals.

It was Mendes who facilitated the meetings between Villa’s board and Emery, at the latter’s request, while he is also thought to have arranged talks with Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, though they ultimately did not take place.

Amorim was also of interest to Wolves when they began looking for Lage’s successor and Mendes, who has supplied three of Fosun’s four managers, has naturally been heavily involved in the search, albeit so far without success.

Initially, things looked straightforward. Julen Lopetegui, a Mendes client and the man initially pencilled in to replace Kenny Jackett in 2016, was just days from leaving Sevilla and the clear standout.

But then Lopetegui turned it down in order to care for his ill father and Mendes suggested the return of Nuno, just 15 months on from his Molineux exit. Wolves instead approached QPR for Michael Beale but the former Villa assistant decided it wasn’t for him and very quickly Wolves appeared out of ideas.

“There are no outstanding candidates to appoint on a permanent basis,” claimed chairman Jeff Shi, while confirming Davis would remain in post until the new year.

That was a statement weakened when Villa swooped for Emery. Though there are no guarantees he will be a success, it is impossible to paint the appointment of a four-time Europa League winner as anything less than a coup for a club who have not played in European competition for more than a decade. Suggesting the talent isn’t out there or attainable, as Shi did, is a tricky argument for any club operating in the world’s richest league to make.

Now, more than at any time under Fosun, it feels fair to question their relationship with Mendes and ask to what extent it is restricting Wolves?

Any assessment must first acknowledge the success the club has enjoyed since 2016 almost certainly would not have happened without his influence. Certainly, their ascent from the Championship to the Europa League could not have been so speedy. No other club in England’s second tier would have been capable of signing Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota in 2017. Likewise, without Fosun’s link-up with Mendes there would have been no Nuno, no Rui Patricio – the list is lengthy. You cannot say Wolves have not felt the benefit of the relationship.

The concern is whether the club’s infrastructure has evolved sufficiently to cope when Mendes is unable to come up with the goods? Technical director Scott Sellars was the chief target of the South Bank’s ire as things unravelled against Leicester but the truth is he has very little real power and does not make key decisions. Recent events would suggest Shi’s default position, when in doubt, is still simply to ask Jorge.

The summer of 2020 always felt instructive. That was the point Wolves were at their peak, having registered two consecutive seventh-placed Premier League finishes and been narrowly beaten in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. There was a genuine sense of a club with the potential to start selling themselves as an emerging force.

Yet their recruitment again leaned heavily on Gestifute and Mendes, with the biggest signings Fabio Silva from Porto and Nelson Semedo from Barcelona.

Silva, as we know, has struggled to live up the £35million fee, of which Mendes took a £6.4m cut for brokering the deal. Semedo, meanwhile, joined for an initial £28m and while the final fee of £37m is hugely dependent on add-ons and unlikely to be reached, it remains a massive outlay for a player who is now struggling to hold down a regular starting place. That same summer saw Matt Doherty, Semedo’s predecessor, move to Tottenham for around £14m in a deal where Mendes represented the player and both managers.

It is difficult to criticise Mendes for any of this. He would simply say he is an agent doing his job.

The issue for Wolves is Fosun’s over-dependence on him and his agency. Shi famously summed up the relationship with Mendes as having access to the ‘first-class seats’ – but the trouble is others can always buy a ticket and it is hard to escape the impression Wolves need the agent more than he needs them.

“We don’t rely on any one agency,” Shi insisted during the same 2021 interview. While technically correct, the numbers tell the real tale. Of the 67 senior players Wolves have signed either permanently or on loan over the last six years, 44 have been either been clients of Gestifute or its affiliates, or in deals negotiated by Mendes. The estimated financial outlay is around £350million. Shi is right to claim Wolves do deal with other agents. Yet there is undoubtedly one they turn to more than most and for all the doors it has opened, in other extents it has been limiting. That certainly feels the case now.

Of course, there remains a chance things will work out as first intended should Lopetegui, a couple of months from now, decides he is ready to take the job after all. In the meantime, Wolves have the appearance of a club in limbo and that is never a good place to be.