Wolves can be biggest club in the world says Jeff Shi

Ambitious owners Fosun have made no secret of their desire to progress the club into English football's elite.

And Shi says they can grow on and off the field to match Manchester City – and surpass them.

"In the future? Yes, why not?" Shi told the Daily Mail. "I do hope we can be the top club in the world. But it's not so useful to talk too much about that now.

"It's step by step. If you ask me the long-term goal, of course, we want to be as good as Man City, even better than them in future.

"We know how much Man City have invested into their squads and personally I don't think if you give me 10 years or 30 years, it's not impossible to match.

"And football is not all about money. Even for Man City. And they made a lot of mistakes on the road. And if they did everything perfect they could have achieved their status now sooner.

"Every club with ambition should consider that they should win something – and our long term goal is to do something comparable to the 50s.

"That's what we're aiming for. But we also should be humble enough to know the Premier League is a very string league. There are many clubs that have been there a long time ahead of us. So, it's not so easy to challenge very soon.

"But we know our long-term goal. And we have to have a plan, year by year, to achieve it.

"We do think some fans of Wolves are sleeping. Maybe their grandfather or father were fans. But this club has gone through a tough period so we have a sleeping fan base and the target is to wake them up."

Shi moved to Wolverhampton just over a year ago to keep a close eye on proceedings at Compton Park, re-rooting his family to Tettenhall.

He admits he wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do at the time, but Fosun told him Wolves were 'too important'.

The chairman added: "I came to live here because the owner (Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang) told me to come.

"He said 'Wolves is too important'. At that time I wasn't so sure I should come as it's a big change for my family. But now I'm here and it's proof he owners were right."

Wolves have made a solid start to life in the Premier League.

As the club's hierarchy have already stated, Fosun want to avoid a relegation battle this season.

"We don't need to survive," he said. "We want to compete. I don't want to struggle in the last games to try to stay in the league.

"It's only four games and still very early. And our squad is the youngest squad in the league so we need some time to know the league.

"But in the first four games, we have already played better than my assumption."