The £10 deal: When Steve Morgan bought Wolves for a tenner

Mick McCarthy's side were in the play-offs and getting set for a bitter showdown with old rivals West Brom in the play-off semi finals.

The season would ultimately end in defeat for Wolves - and eventually for Albion who lost in the final to Derby after progressing past their near neighbours.

But despite the disappointment on the field - a new era was set to begin off it.

It was during this period that Wolves became the centre of the footballing headlines, as Welsh multi millionaire house builder Steve Morgan completed a deal to buy the club from Sir Jack Hayward - for a sum of just TEN POUNDS.

Morgan, founder of house builder Redrow, at the time had an estimated wealth of £450 million - and agreed to buy all of Hayward's shares with the promise of investing £30 million into the club.

More than 15 years on from Morgan's arrival at Molineux - here is a look back at his time at the club and how the deal almost never happened.

Liverpool

Morgan was a lifelong Liverpool fan - and three years prior to arriving at Molineux he was involved in a £70 million deal to buy the Anfield club and become chairman.

However, negotiations faltered when the cost of the club's plans to move to a new ground had spiralled to more than £100 million.

That put Morgan off from moving forward - but three years later he would take over at Wolves instead.

The road to Molineux

Morgan, who hails from Llandudno in North Wales began life in the working world laying sewers.

At the age of 21, he borrowed £5,000 from his father to buy out his employers, Wellington Civil Engineering and from there he set up his housing company Redrow.

Morgan's reputation and his company grew - and he was soon a successful businessman, selling a stake in the De Vere Leisure Group for £100m in 2006 and with his shares in Redrow at that time worth more than £53m.

It was then when the opportunity at Wolves arrived.

Morgan comes out on top

When Hayward put the club up for sale he said it wasn't his plan to make a financial killing on the club - instead he wanted to breath new life into Molineux and Morgan was chosen as the man to do it.

When the deal was announced in 2007, a statement from the club said a number of parties were interested but Morgan came out on top.

It read: “Having been impressed by what he’s seen of the club to date, Steve Morgan is keen to ensure stability and continuity by retaining Mick McCarthy as first team manager and Jez Moxey as chief executive.

“Sir Jack purchased Wolves in 1990 for £2m and has invested £50m of his personal wealth into the club. He announced his intention to step aside in September 2003.

“Since then a number of parties have expressed interest but, in Steve Morgan, Sir Jack feels he has finally found someone who not only has the best interests of the club at heart but also has the resources necessary to take over the responsibility for returning the club to its former greatness.

“In recognition of his unique commitment to Wolves and to ensure his experience is not lost, Sir Jack will remain life president and be available to the club to provide whatever support they require.”

Time to go - but you have to invest

After nearly ten years as the steward of the club - Morgan had overseen two years in the Premier League but he had also been in charge for the dark times when Wolves slipped into League One.

In 2016, he decided it was time to sell up and struck a £30 million deal with Fosun - and the details of the deal were very close to the one who made with Hayward ten years earlier.

There was a lot of interest in the club, but Morgan chose Fosun on the promise that it would invest around £100 million into the club.

In an interview in 2020, Morgan said: "They weren’t the first ones to come along. There were plenty of others.

“But we’ve all seen what happens to clubs who get purchased by people who haven’t got pockets deep enough to support it – Bolton Wanderers is a classic example.

“I turned down a lot of interest in the club, from people who I didn’t think were the right custodians.

“When Fosun came along, it seemed like the Chinese were taking over the Premier League – virtually all the clubs in the Midlands being Chinese-owned.

“Fosun weren’t even the first Chinese party that approached us but, again, the first one was a consortium of God knows how many businessmen – and I don’t think those things ever work.

“You need somebody who is decision-making and has deep pockets, and Fosun are a huge conglomerate.

“They came along and committed to putting money into the club.”