Jeff Shi goes back on Wolves promise with brutal two-word reply

Jeff Shi concedes that Wolverhampton Wanderers may never be able to consistently compete with the Premier League’s Big Six.

Fosun arrived at Molineux six years ago with grand plans of building a European superpower and Shi suggested Wolves could become bigger than Manchester City. He has since backtracked on those comments and now admits Wolves will struggle to disrupt the established top six on a regular basis.

In the latest edition of Ask Wolves, Shi said: “What I know is if you want to have long-term success, for example, top eight, top seven, top nine, top six, whatever, always stable, the difference between top six and us – for other clubs like us, Leicester, West Ham – we can do something good for one season, then maybe not do so well the next season, but the big six they are always very stable. So what I’m thinking is, of course, even with the current squad, maybe next season we can do very well, maybe we can go to the top four.

“This season we were closer but still not reaching there, but it’s hard to say for any one season, a single season, we cannot do this. But for me the task is not about only one season, it’s about how to make sure Wolves can have a strong capacity and ability to stay competitive always for a long time.”

Fosun aren’t likely to invest heavily this summer after reining in the spending in recent years. Supporters fear clubs like Aston Villa - who have already signed three players since the season finished - and mega-rich Newcastle United will overtake Wolves.

Shi has stressed the importance of spending Fosun’s money sensibly to retain their interest. The Wolves chairman also wants to protect jobs within the club.

He added: “You can see in the last few years, it is easy to have a new