Julen Lopetegui’s Wolves future ‘in doubt’ as shock revelation made over club finances

Julen Lopetegui’s future at Wolves has been cast into doubt due to the club’s difficult financial situation, according to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague.

The 56-year-old arrived at the club in November to replace Bruno Lage and has guided the club to safety but last week raised a concern over the club’s ability to compete in the transfer market.

As quoted by BBC Sport, Balague says Lopetegui has only learned of the club’s financial situation with talks set to be held this week.

Balague said: “Talks this week between the club and Lopetegui will give us a clearer picture.

“With the club unable to get the signings or investment they promised him and instead having to sell to keep up with FFP, his future is in doubt even though he is under contract.”

Wolves were bottom of the table on Christmas Day but sit 13th ahead of the final game of the season this weekend. Wolves’ posted a loss of £46.1m in their latest financial results, and have signed 10 players since at a cost of around £153m while generating £54m from player sales.

That could spell a further loss in their next accounts, with Premier League clubs only allowed to sustain losses of £105m over a three-year period, per Premier League rules.

Last week, Lopetegui said he was unaware of the club’s FFP issues after a meeting with with chairman Jeff Shi.

He said: “I have had that meeting [with chairman Jeff Shi] and there are some Financial Fair Play problems I didn’t know before.

“I hope we will solve this issue. It’s very difficult to compete in the Premier League without investment.

“Despite the club investing this year it has been a very hard year so we have to learn the lesson and do our homework to try to improve the team.”

However, despite the claims over his future, he did add last week: “It’s one thing I didn’t know before. I hope we’ll be able to improve to compete next season.”