Former Wolverhampton Wanderers and England midfielder Paul Ince has admitted that he’s been left feeling a bit ‘jealous’ given the clubs change in fortunes following the arrival of Fosun.
The now 52-year-old made the switch to Molineux back in 2002 after departing Middlesbrough, and he went on to make 131 appearances for us across all competitions before he departed in 2006 for Swindon Town.
His spell with us did coincide with success as we won promotion into the Premier League via the Play-Off route, although we fell to relegation that season, and speaking to the Birmingham Mail this weekend, Ince admitted that if investment back then had been comparable to what we’ve seen since Fosun walked through the door, he believes we have easily established ourselves in the top flight under Dave Jones.
“I kind of feel jealous, in a way, because when I was at Wolves, we got promoted in the 2002-03 season under David Jones. And if we’d had the finances they have now, I’m not sure Wolves would ever have come out of the Premier League. We didn’t have enough money at the club to invest in the team and we went down the next year. But what they have done the last two years has been unbelievable. Listen, money does help, and then you have Jorge Mendes, the agent, bringing in top, top players. It helps, but you still have to get these top players to come to Wolves. It’s not like they’re coming to Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal. That’s not being disrespectful but the likes of Joao Moutinho, Raul Jimenez has been unbelievable, and that shows the pool Wolves have now got as a team and it’s great to see.”
Ince does have a point and I’m sure plenty of fans will agree with him had we been able to strengthen in the manner we have done since, but as he points to himself, it’s not just money, it’s attracting the right calibre of player and selling the vision that’s also important.
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Good comment by Paul Ince, Paul Ince was another great signing at the time for us,proving that we could attract players of is calibre and he was not big headed and gave is all for our club, so the club as always had that pulling power, but he is right if the money had been invested then we could of became big at that time then and held our own in the premier.