Wolves fans have been sinking their teeth into a new podcast featuring Jeff Shi – and it’s safe to say the chairman has caused a fair bit of fury.
Fans have been waiting for some transfer news, with the club getting off to a slow start this summer.
Wolves have already sold several players, and have only brought in Fer Lopez so far.
But on Tuesday evening, Wolves fans were actually all talking Jeff Shi, after he made an appearance on the Business of Sport podcast.
Shi gave a 90-minute interview about a variety of topics.
At one point Shi expresses regret over the 2020 sale of Diogo Jota, with Nuno Espirito Santo preferring to keep Adama Traore at the time.
But there’s one snippet of the interview that is really getting people’s backs up.
Jeff Shi gives tone-deaf response about Wolves that should worry fans
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Shi doesn’t often do interviews. But when he does, they tend not to go down very well.
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There’s no doubt he’s an unpopular figure at the club.
Wolves have been on the decline for the last few years and many put that down to a lack of proper investment from Fosun, and poor decision-making.
The self-sustaining model with which Fosun operate keeps Wolves fairly secure financially, but it isn’t necessarily conducive to challenging for silverware or pushing up the Premier League table and challenging for European football.
Shi once infamously stated that Wolves may not necessarily be an ideal choice for people looking to support a team that will push for trophies and challenge for Europe.
This was put to Shi on the podcast, and it was a chance for him to show Wolves fans that he and Fosun do care, and are ambitious. But he missed the mark spectacularly.
“It’s more about, I’m totally against a traditional way of football. I think I don’t like the traditional ways people talk about football, like a fancy new stadium, fancy new owners, spending £1 billion, £2 billion, buying fancy players, whatever.
“I think that model is OK for fans, OK for the government, and OK for the city maybe. But it’s not OK for the owners (laughs). I have seen so many owners, they spend money, they lose money, they go, no one remembers them.”
Shi also says at one point: “They don’t want to see the football club as a business. But they want to see the football club be sustainable.”
Jeff Shi podcast appearance is a horror show
These lines from Shi are an insult to Wolves fans, who long to watch their club having a proper go again.
If Shi and Fosun have such an issue with Wolves fans wanting these things, then they simply should not be owning a football club.
Every fan wants their club to be the best it can possibly be.
Sure, supporters at many clubs accept that they will never see a trophy be lifted, or a European competition be played in.
But it’s about striving to try and make it happen. It’s about dreaming.
Shi makes it clear with these comments that he does not care much for the desire of Wolves’ loyal fans. h
He states that he is not content with Wolves merely surviving, and wants the club to push on. But not many will buy that given the overall tone of the interview, and just how Fosun have run the club in the last few years.