West Brom fans are extremely worried about a report which links Mark Campbell with potentially buying the Black Country club from Guochuan Lai.
The Daily Mail reports that with Lai eager to sell up before the end of the season, a three-way battle for the Baggies has emerged.
Campbell, who has tried and failed to buy Sunderland and Falkirk in recent years, is “fronting one of the consortiums” that are interested in a takeover at The Hawthorns.
And after reading up on Campbell, there are a lot of Albion fans who are understandably concerned about the property mogul’s bid to buy the club.
Not only did Campbell fail to buy two lesser clubs than West Brom, he also saw himself made bankrupt in 2010 while he owned a pub. According to the Daily Record, “he was described as unemployed and living in Bexley, Kent” at the time.
The Scottish Sun also reported last year that Campbell “secretly settled a former employee’s sex pest lawsuit out of court” after a woman in her 30s accused him of “making unwanted advances and bombarding her with sleazy texts”.
Now, Lai might not be the best football club owner in the world but we’d rather not hear a peep from the Chinese businessman than hear stories like this.
And that is what has led to so many fans showing concern over this latest report of his interest in taking over the Baggies.
Here is a selection of their tweets:
Mark Campbell seems to be extremely dodgy!
— David Piesing (@DavidPiesing63) January 13, 2021
Indeed he does
— Chris Lepkowski (@chrislepkowski) January 13, 2021
Don’t get too excited he tried and failed with a bid to take over Falkirk
— SPORTMATTERS (@FOOTBALLMATTERS) January 14, 2021
Mark Campbell was made bankrupt in 2010 after running a pub. At the time he was described as unemployed and living in Bexley, Kent. He'll fit right in!
— Raj (@jahwibble) January 13, 2021
This Mark Campbell chap seems a stone cold chancer. He’s the exact type of person we will sell the club to.
— Ash (@WastefulSavant) January 13, 2021
Hope so mate. This Campbell bloke doesn’t exactly sound promising.
— AshTurner (@AshTurnerDJ) January 14, 2021
And failed. No substance whatsoever. Seems to be a total chancer. Doubt he’d pass the PL’s ownership test. This may help you https://t.co/CtAgvmPv4U
— David Piesing (@DavidPiesing63) January 13, 2021
Reading various articles about both his UK and US business interests he sounds worse than Lai! 20 dissolved companies in The UK alone. Failed to buy Falkirk as well as Sunderland. We don't want @WBA to be the next Campbell failure.
— Dave Rouse (@ethanhunt1961) January 13, 2021
When Jeremy Peace sold West Brom to Lai for £200million in 2016, there was a lot of relief and also scepticism about how the Chinese businessman would run the club.
It would be fair to say things have got worse since Peace’s sale to Lai.
Let’s hope Lai doesn’t sell to Campbell because everything suggests things could get a whole lot worse than they currently are.
In other West Brom news, Peace is continuing to hold Albion back.
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