Fosun looking at Wolves global expansion

Bosses linked with Spanish side Jumilla last season, sending several players on loan to the lower league side.

They’ve also had three players on loan with Slovakian outfit FC Dac 1904, while the club has had close links with Telford.

Executive chairman Jeff Shi said the Jumilla partnership, which also saw Wolves take an under-23 side for a friendly last season, was effectively a pilot scheme for what they hope will be the first of many worldwide link-ups.

He told the Express & Star: “Jumilla is sort of a pilot project, we were trying to get a feeling from the partnership about the Spanish market. In the future maybe Fosun will buy more clubs who can be a feeder club for Wolves and also maybe more partnership clubs.

“For example, maybe in Africa, South America, there is much young talent there. We need to build a network.

“It’s not easy because you need to find the right club. The right club means having a very good facility to support the growth of young players there. They have to have the network to help you find top young talent in some certain areas and also they need to be keen to cooperate with you and in a good location, a good league and share the same identity.

“So, it’s not easy, but we will have, for sure, more in the future.”

Shi believes Jumilla perhaps weren’t at the right level to help Wolves’ young players improve – but that lessons have been learned.

“At the beginning we thought it was the right level, the only way to know is to try it,” he added. “Wolves are growing very fast.

“If we were in the Championship or a lower-table Premier League team, Jumilla would be a fit for us. But in the future maybe we need a better partnership club to grow our young players.”