The Root of All Promotions

We all know that money is football steroids and that, in the modern game, clubs can will be successful or not primarily due to their ability or willingness to spend.

Manchester City have swept all before them by initiating a spending spree of unsurpassed magnitude in recent years and have crafted a team of individuals who all excel in their specialist positions. Arsenal have been far more conservative and are now an afterthought in terms of challenging for cups and titles despite having cash reserves most clubs would kill for.

That brings me to Wolves, the comments made by Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani after their defeat to the league leaders questioning the legality of their association with super-agent Jorge Mendes, and Wolves’ announcement of pre-tax losses of £23m for last season. Given that they’ve also signed Neves for £15.8m in this financial session in addition to the other expensive signings and loan fees, it is reasonable to suggest that they’ll post similar figures for this season too.

I don’t know if their relationship with Mendes (the club’s owners also own a company that owns part of his agency) breaks any of the rules regarding third parties; that’s for the league to determine, but it’s very clear that FFP is not a consideration of the Wolves owners. Given the League’s toothless attempts to censure QPR and Leicester the rules were amended to be cumulative over three seasons but with losses limited to £13m per season maximum. Wolves posted a profit of £7.5m the season before last so should effectively have a permissible loss for this season of £23.5m, as is my understanding, but with a net spend of around £18m on transfers alone (excluding loan fees) then I think they’ll be posting a larger loss than last season.

It’ll all come out in the wash but with Wolves looking likely to be in the Premier League next season, will it make any difference at all? I wonder where Uncle Mel is in all this… he’s obviously maximised the revenue streams to the hilt to bring cash into the club but is he prepared to take the gamble and sanction the spree that could help us make that step up from play-off hopefuls to auto contenders, and would you want him to?

He’s spoken of bringing players through but, despite the relative success of the young teams, there has been little evidence of progression or impact into Rowett’s squad.

So, slow-burn or wild spree: what would be your preference for this summer?

**For the purposes of this article, assume we are not promoted this season