Wolves transfer news: Jeff Shi reveals regret over taking Nuno Espirito Santo advice over big-money sale

Wolverhampton Wanderers chairman Jeff Shi has revealed his regret over selling one of the club's best players in 2020.

In their nine-year reign at Molineux, Fosun International have established Wolves as a Premier League club, despite flirting with relegation on occasions.

However, the aim upon their arrival was to consistently challenge for European football, something that has only been achieved once for 2019-2020.

Aside from Matt Doherty, the players that achieved that feat and reached the Europa League quarter-finals have since all left the club.

Speaking to the Business of Sport podcast, Shi has admitted that he should have kept one of that squad at Wolves for longer than he did.

Shi reveals Jota regret

Shi has claimed that he was wrong to cash in on Diogo Jota when Liverpool registered an interest in the attacker in September 2020, Nuno Espirito Santo seemingly preferring to keep Adama Traore.

Although Wolves would generate a £41m fee, paid in instalments, with an alleged £4m add-ons, Shi has hinted that he should have placed more faith in the player who had been inconsistent during the previous campaign.

He said: "In the last eight or nine years, I think we shouldn’t have sold Diogo Jota. At the time, I spoke with Nuno and (he said) we may well one of the players maybe, Diogo, Adama whatever. And then Nuno chose Adama to stay.

“Because he thought maybe Adama was so important for how he plays. Of course at the time, Diogo was injured a little bit too much so he was injured for two months, and then two months again or whatever, and not playing so well in the last three or four months for us.

“He went to Liverpool and did so well, I was very happy for him. He was a very good guy and a smart boy.

“But if you ask me if I could change the history, I wouldn’t have sold him.”

Still the right move at the right time?

With Wolves having failed to qualify for Europe for a second season in a row at a time when the coronavirus pandemic had hit, Shi may have felt that a big-money sale was needed to help safeguard finances.

Furthermore, Jota was ready to take the next step in his career. He had delivered 44 goals and 19 assists from 131 appearances for Wolves, nine of the strikes coming in Wolves' run to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

Jota has since gone on to win several pieces of silverware with Liverpool, including the Premier League title, with 65 goals and 26 assists coming from his 182 appearances.

Shi's regret may be concerning Traore, who eventually left Wolves on a free transfer in 2023 and did not come close to matching Jota's numbers during his own five-year stint in the West Midlands.

Written by
Darren Plant