[ad_pod ]
When Guochuan Lai bought an 88% stake in West Brom in 2016, he said: “I don’t want to be a pop star; I want to become a great owner.”
Reflecting upon that, he’s been neither. Lai isn’t a popular figure at the club, nor has he been a great owner.
In fact, he’s been a disastrous owner.
When Jeremy Peace sold the club Albion were a team who were establishing themselves in the Premier League. The Baggies may never have been an excellent top-flight side, but after a topsy-turvy two years they now sit in a perilous position.
Having been relegated from the Premier League, West Brom failed to achieve promotion during their first term back in the Championship.
The club sacked Darren Moore in March and ever since that moment, matters at the club have been a circus.
Three months later West Brom are still searching for a new manager and after an initial shortlist of four targets had been drawn up, Chris Wilder, Slaven Bilic and Lee Bowyer have all also been in the running.
However, for anything to change at the Hawthorns next season, there needs to be a huge change at the top.
That involves seeing Lai leave the club. Mark Jenkins and Luke Dowling have proved themselves to be pretty incapable at replacing Moore but nothing will improve unless drastic measures at board level are taken.
Having bought the club for £200m, Albion’s majority shareholder has barely invested a penny into the football club.
One of the few times West Brom have made serious investment was in signing Yuning Zhang, a Chinese prodigy who cost the club £6m, per Express & Star. He didn’t play a game after arriving, something that sums up the rather farcical nature of the football club in recent years.
To think Albion can’t now bring in players like Dwight Gayle is a damning indictment of where they sit.
They’re in danger of falling away and if there isn’t change at the top, West Brom’s failed campaign could turn into something far worse next season.
Having attended just one match in the entirety of 2018/19, it’s clear Lai doesn’t hold a huge interest in the club. His words in 2016, therefore, offered false hope.
As another cracking Championship season draws to a close, check out the top 5 fan chants from 2018/19 in the video below…
In a fan survey conducted by Express & Star at the end of last season, 90% of West Brom fans declared they had no faith in their owner. 87% of supporters also said they had no faith in the board.
After the events of the past few months this is hardly surprising, but it just goes to show the troublesome relationship between those who attend the Hawthorns and those who simply oversee aspects behind the scenes.
Pumping millions into a rebuild over the summer wouldn’t be sustainable, but the fact they’re having to cut back is a sign of what’s gone wrong in recent years.
Unless things are altered behind closed doors, though, West Brom could be damned to the Championship for the foreseeable future. Something has to change.
