Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Fosun's Wolves quest has no room for sentiment

Nothing that has happened over the last 12 months has offered even the slightest hint that Fosun may not be committed to a major project.

Yet it was still an earth-shuddering announcement for Wolves supporters when news of Joao Moutinho’s arrival broke.

Nothing should surprise fans now. Perhaps it needed a signing like the hugely experienced Portuguese international to reassure supporters of exactly what this ownership is all about.

And what about the transfer fee? The European Championship winner has joined from Champions’ League club AS Monaco for £5 million. Which is the same amount Middlesbrough paid Sunderland for Paddy McNair last month.

But it is not just the Moutinho deal that has characterised Fosun’s Wolves this week. Every bit as eye-opening was the news of Barry Douglas’s impending departure to Leeds. Perhaps more so.

With an agent like Jorges Mendes at the other end of the phone there is always a chance a player like Moutinho could become available. But for Douglas to be cast aside so swiftly raises eyebrows. It also speaks volumes for what Fosun are all about. The clinical nature of the plan going forward.

With 38 league starts, five goals and 14 assists, Douglas was a pivotal member of the promotion-winning side.

Signed for just £1m he proved to be an absolute bargain. Not only was the 28-year-old one of the tidiest and most consistent footballers on the pitch, he was engaging and personable off it.

Exactly the sort of character that makes dressing rooms better. What made last season so special was the way the players endeared themselves to supporters as the campaign went on.

One of the joys of promotion was the idea of seeing these same players in the Premier League. So it jars a lot to see Douglas ushered out of the door so quickly without getting to experience the rewards of all his hard work last season.

Wolves have turned a profit on the player, though. This is a business factor chairman Jeff Shi has never shied away from. In one of his earliest interviews he said: “In bringing in players it is about the potential to grow.”

Fosun want to make a profit on player investment where possible if it is not to the detriment of the team. The view is that Douglas has been replaced already and moves to Leeds at a significant mark up in price.

Whether or not he has been adequately replaced only time will tell, but he would not have left if the people who mattered did not think he had been.

Another way of looking at the Douglas transfer would be to ask: How many players have departed during Fosun’s ownership that Wolves have missed? The unsentimental answer is none.

That may not always be the case going forward. A lot will depend on how attractive the club can become during their time in the Premier League.

Nobody envisages Ruben Neves seeing out his days at Molineux. And the same applies to Nuno and his backroom team.

But the point here is that the squad is improving incredibly quickly. Some are suggesting that this could become the best just-promoted team the Premier League era has ever witnessed.

On that score it is hard to look past Kenny Dalglish’s 1992/93 Blackburn Rovers who, led by Alan Shearer, finished fourth on their return to the top flight. But you get the drift.

There has clearly been a cultural shift taking place at Molineux. Long service and loyalty are not traits that Fosun are embracing. The turnover of players year on year is going to be high. In this day and age it needs to be. The top division takes no prisoners.

Left to chance, events can spiral out of control quickly. Sunderland are about to embark on a League One campaign 15 months after finishing bottom of the Premier League. Wolves know all about that too after standing still too long when they last had their chance at the top.

As the squad improves it will be fascinating to observe how much the team can evolve within the identity of the formation Nuno has laid down.

Playing in the 3-4-3 formation they blew the Championship away. Three at the back has made a comeback in recent years, with Chelsea taking it all the way to a league title. There were times last season when supporters were purring at the quality of football on show; the best in a generation or more.

If you will indulge a slight diversion in order to labour a point, towards the end of last season we did an interview for Soccer Saturday with Harry Maguire at Leicester.

And as so often, there was a minute or so to kill while the microphones were being checked and camera lights adjusted. We got chatting about Wolves and Maguire said he knew they’d get promoted after what happened during that pre-season friendly at Molineux last July, when Leicester lost 1-0. ‘They played us off the park’ was the gist of his observations.

That pre-season friendly took place on this weekend last year, on the back of less than two months’ of work under Nuno’s management.

Everything that has happened on the pitch since and so far this summer points to the bar being raised once more. There will be times when events like the sale of Barry Douglas will leave a sense of disappointment.

And there will be other times when the arrival of a Joao Moutinho sets pulses racing.

But has there ever been a time like this when it felt like Wolves have moved forward with such purpose?