Jeff Shi responds to transfer criticism as Wolves monitor £85m Liverpool deal

All of your Wolves headlines on Thursday, June 9...

Jeff Shi insists money wasn’t the reason behind Wolverhampton Wanderers’ failure to strengthen their squad in the January transfer window.

Wolves didn’t make a signing of note in the winter window, but they did loan Adama Traore to Barcelona without the guarantee of a permanent transfer. Portuguese youngster Chiquinho arrived for £3million, while Wolves also signed Hayao Kawabe and Jeong Sang-bin for a combined £1.5m before loaning them both to Grasshoppers.

Bruno Lage's team were in a healthy position in the Premier League by the end of January after three straight wins against Manchester United, Southampton and Brentford. However, much to supporters’ frustration, Fosun decided against strengthening Lage’s squad - despite the head coach asking for new players in the build-up to the window.

Shi says the reason Wolves didn’t sign a senior player was because they couldn’t find anyone in the market. “I think it’s not about money,” said the Wolves chairman.

“It’s like this, if we have a very good player and if we are sure he can come to help us to be in the top six, top four, of course we will do it. But it’s about whether we have available players in the market.

“I think in January generally it’s very tough. You can see not too many clubs did a lot of things, only maybe Newcastle. So I don’t think it’s about the budget, it’s about we haven’t found a good player then.”

Liverpool are poised to make an £85million bid for Benfica forward Darwin Nunez in a move which will send shockwaves around the Premier League.

Manchester City have bagged Erling Haaland, and now Liverpool are responding by moving for another of European football’s most coveted young strikers. The deal