Sad shame as writing on the wall at West Brom after financial results – Expert
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...
Dan Plumley has insisted that the “writing on the wall” has been realised at West Brom after their latest financial accounts were published this week.
Auditors made the decision to write off the long-awaited £5million loan repayment from Guochuan Lai as “nil” in the latest sad development at The Hawthorns.
Lai has since reiterated his desire to eventually repay the loan with the interest, although there has been no deadlines placed on when that may happen.
“I think it more underlines what a sad situation it has been around that,” he exclusively told West Brom News.
“You’ve effectively now got an objective body in the auditors who have to look at this sensibly in number terms and what they’re effectively saying is they don’t expect that money to be repaid and it’s gone on long enough.
“I’m not so sure that transfers into the being received, you’re hopeful that it will still happen based on what he is saying, but it has rumbled on long enough and the deadlines have been missed, there is a decision there by the auditors to say you should be writing this off.
“I think that’s really sad in terms of where it has landed but it is absolutely in keeping with the situation at that club in the last few years with that particular owner and it’s just another example of how bad it’s been.
“Just a real shame for the club, financially and a shame for the fans as they’ve seen the writing on the wall for a while and it’s now been realised.”
Nothing is a surprise to West Brom fans anymore.
Lai has stayed away for much of his time at the club, and the sooner something more concrete than these empty promises are made, the better, for everyone involved.
In other West Brom news, the Albion would love to re-sign their £6m former player, but would need to secure promotion to the Premier League to do so