Grasshoppers’ treatment as a ‘farm team’ for Wolverhampton Wanderers has been labelled a ‘pity’ and bad for the image of the Swiss club.
The Swiss side were bought by the wife of Fosun boss Guo Guanchang in 2020 and have been working with Wolves since then as something of a feeder club.
This year alone, Hayao Kawabe has made the move to Molineux, while Wolves sent the likes of Leonardo Campana, Bendeguz Bolla and Toti Gomes (who has since returned to the Molineux) the opposite way.
The deal has so far benefitted the Premier League side more than their counterparts, with the departures of Gomes and Kawabe only weakening Grasshoppers.
It’s a relationship that’s common for many teams across the world, with big clubs often forming relationships with smaller sides to farm the best talent from them and develop their own.
“It has never been as blatant as this winter,” he told Blick.
“Toti Gomes and Kawaba have to go to Wolverhampton, and they say they might come back at the end of the month and play the Rockrunde with GC.
“You play the entire second half of the season, and at the end of January, you have to put these players back in. That’s how you make a lot of other people crazy. That’s a real shame because the Chinese are doing a good job.
“We have some money again and good players. But it’s a pity. For me, GC stands for pride, noble club, arrogance, for a team that gets the best players from Switzerland.
“Now they are only a farm team; they get players Wolverhampton don’t want, they have to give the best. That’s bad from an image point of view.”
