West Brom fans attach banner about Guochuan Lai to Astle Gates after Bilic is sacked
West Brom fans have taken to The Hawthorns to attach a banner calling for Guochuan Lai to sell the club to the Astle Gates.
On Wednesday, Albion announced that manager Slaven Bilic has been relieved of his duties at the club after overseeing just one win in the opening 13 matches of the Premier League season.
In retaliation to the news, which came as a shock after the impressive 1-1 draw away at Manchester City on Tuesday, some fans made their way to The Hawthorns to put up a banner which read: “Sorry, Slav. #LaiOut”
Albion Twitter account The Baggies Bible shared the image on social media.
Fault lies with more than just Lai
We’re not going to defend Lai for one second because his lack of investment in the club is the biggest reason why West Brom look doomed to be relegated this season.
However, it’s not the only reason.
Albion’s form has been ropey under Bilic for some time now with the club winning just four of their last 24 league matches in both the Premier League and the Championship.
The Baggies stuttered their way to promotion last season and a lot of that fault lies with Bilic, his coaching team and the players. After the COVID-enforced break, they went back into the action lacking in fitness and team selection was never quite as consistent as it was prior to the break.
Bilic’s sacking, based on what happened on the pitch, is largely justified.
But there’s a bigger picture to it than that.
Lai’s lack of investment, Luke Dowling buying and selling players Bilic either doesn’t want or wants to keep, Xu Ke’s bumpy transition period in taking over as CEO after Mark Jenkins’ retirement. All of them are reasons why we are where we are now.
For the good of the club, we hope Lai sells up soon to a group that at least has some kind of British representative involved in it.
But Lai selling West Brom isn’t going to stop us getting relegated. Sacking Bilic and hiring a fire-fighter like Sam Allardyce might.
In other West Brom news, Richard Keys has hit out at the Baggies ownership.
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