Danny Wright

Wed 31 March 2021 17:10, UK

Every week we’ll be asking West Brom fans on our Facebook account for questions that will be answered by editor Danny Wright. You can join in by following the West Brom News Facebook account and watching out for weekly mailbag posts.

It seems inevitable that West Brom will be relegated back to the Championship in the coming weeks with the Black Country club in a perilous position in the Premier League table.

Albion have nine matches to turn around a 10-point gap between themselves and safety while also improving the goal difference drastically.

It seems impossible and with relegation an almost certainty, questions are being asked about the future of both manager Sam Allardyce and owner Guochuan Lai.

We asked Albion fans for their questions for West Brom News editor Danny Wright and here we’ll be examining the future of the two under-fire Hawthorns figures.

There will be a lot of managers who will want to join West Brom if Allardyce moves on at the end of the season. According to Football Insider, there’s a break clause in Big Sam’s contract which means he can leave The Hawthorns upon relegation. I fully expect that to happen. 

But I understand the worry. Who would want to work at a club with a silent owner who offers no investment in the squad? However, the truth is, even though it seems bad from our perspective, we’ll still be in a better financial position than most Championship clubs next season. Yet again, we’ll be among the favourites for promotion but there will be a big rebuild needed in the summer with players contracts expiring and loan deals coming to an end. 

We’ve seen a lot of managers linked with taking charge in the summer already. Chris Wilder and Michael Appleton seem to be the most likely at this stage, in my opinion. One is out of a job and the other is in League One so why would they not be interested?

At the end of the day, not everyone will be pleased by who the club decides to hire after Allardyce but we’re not going to have much choice other than to trust those in charge to make the right decisions.

In January, the Daily Mail reported that Lai wanted to recoup the £200million he paid for the club in 2016. However, The Athletic has been told by experts that Albion are worth around £130-150 million. If they are relegated, the club’s value could plummet by around 50 per cent. With relegation looking to be inevitable, it’s unlikely Lai will get more than £80million, in my opinion. 

Lai seems to be facing some issues in China at the moment [Titan Sports Plus] and I’m not sure how that would affect his ability to sell West Brom. But the Chinese businessman needs to make a big decision this summer.

Does he cut his losses? The longer West Brom stay in the Championship, the more their value drops. Or does he finally invest and really try to get the team back up into the Premier League and cement their spot in the top-flight?

It’s a tough decision but based on the fact Lai hasn’t invested any cash into the club for almost five years, it’s safe to say he won’t do it now.

I don’t think he has any alternative but to cash in his chips and sell the club in the coming months.

In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips expects this £7million-rated ace to quit the Albion in the summer.

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