Guochuan Lai was heavily criticised during his time at West Brom.

West Brom agree ‘extreme last resort’ as £20m loan taken out against The Hawthorns

Wed 28 December 2022 16:52, UK

West Brom would sell players to generate funds as an “extreme last resort”, according to The Express and Star’s Lewis Cox.

Albion confirmed (West Brom website, 28 December) they have taken out a £20million loan from US private equity firm MSD Holdings, which will be used to finance the general business operations at the club.

Cox has reported the move was necessary to “maintain financial security” and that player sales would occur if further fundraising was required.

Loan taken out against WBA Group assets – The Hawthorns, training ground, etc. But it is understood that is an extreme last-resort and – if fund-raising via assets is required players would be sold.
Xu Ke (Ken) says “the loan will only be spent on the purposes of the club.” #wba
— Lewis Cox (@LewisCox_star) December 28, 2022

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“Albion confirm they have taken out a loan of £20m over four years from US private equity firm MSD Holdings. The club say move necessary to maintain financial security,” wrote Cox (via Twitter, 28 December).

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“Loan taken out against WBA Group assets – The Hawthorns, training ground, etc. But it is understood that is an extreme last-resort and – if fund-raising via assets is required players would be sold.”

Not good

This certainly doesn’t scream ‘sustainable’ from the Baggies and the £20million sum is a significant amount to be loaned at the moment. There are clearly some significant financial issues which are occurring behind the scenes at The Hawthorns, with Guochuan Lai’s loan set to be the next news to emerge from the club.

There has been plenty of change on the pitch of late, and the same has to occur off of it if the Baggies wish to really get back to the club they once were. It was only a couple of years ago Albion were comfortably a Premier League side, that had ambitions of pushing on further.

For the club to achieve that once again, they desperately need to find a more sustainable way of approaching its off-the-pitch problems.

At the moment, the big positive for fans to cling onto is how Carlos Corberan has got his side playing on the pitch. The Baggies look like a playoff side at the moment, and there’s no reason why they can’t gatecrash the top six come the season’s end.

In other West Brom news, Jake Livermore is facing an uncertain future after the latest Carlos Corberan decision