West Brom confirm Li Piyue exit in Companies House document
West Brom have confirmed Li Piyue’s exit from the board in a document uploaded to Companies House on 9 February.
As shown in the ‘termination of director appointment’ document, Li was relieved from his duties as Albion’s chairman yesterday [8 February] with another file showing that controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai has replaced him.
This comes after it was confirmed last week that Lai would be the new chairman at The Hawthorns but no official update was made about Li’s position at the Black Country club.
Ron Gourlay’s appointment as a director has also been confirmed on Companies House today while there’s been no news of Xu Ke, also known as Ken.
Gourlay is Albion’s new chief executive but it remains to be seen what Ken’s role is going forward.
All change at the Albion
New chairman, new CEO and a new manager. Lai certainly hasn’t left many stones unturned in the last couple of weeks.
Lai is clearly desperate to see West Brom return to the Premier League this season and has been unimpressed by what he’s seen from Li, Ken and Valerien Ismael.
Steve Bruce has been hired to replace Ismael after a swift search for a new manager by Gourlay in his first duty for the club.
Gourlay comes to The Hawthorns having worked at Chelsea and Reading. He’s been widely criticised by Reading fans but it remains to be seen how he’ll get on at the Baggies.
Either way, it’s hard to do worse than a board that seemed to be absolutely non-existent and have next to no football knowledge or experience.
Gourlay has a lot of experience, as does new manager Bruce.
In other West Brom news, Bruce wants to complete an out-of-window signing at the Albion and one ex-Premier League player has been mentioned.