Middle East party in £50m West Brom takeover talks, deal wanted by end of the year – John Percy
Parties from the Middle East and USA are in talks over completing a takeover at West Brom, according to John Percy.
The Telegraph journalist reported via the newspaper’s website on Tuesday (19 September) that Albion are under pressure to raise funds after being unable to sell enough players in the summer transfer window.
It is understood that initial talks have been held over a £50million takeover being completed before the end of the year with interest emerging from the Middle East and North America.
Percy adds that WBA Group director Xu Ku is leading the sale process and talks have reportedly been held in person.
While no takeover is close to being completed at this stage, Guochuan Lai is said to be “battling to find a buyer” as soon as possible.
Positive?
The sooner this Chinese ownership sells up and leaves West Brom for good, the better.
Lai and co have overseen the end of the club’s time as an established Premier League club, made bad decision after bad decision and put West Bromwich Albion’s very existence under threat.
The £20million loan from MSD Holdings in January, as well as all the loans Lai isn’t repaying to the club, have meant that we’re nowhere near a desirable asset to have.
We just hope that the issues at The Hawthorns do not lead to Lai and Ken attracting the wrong sorts.
However, it’s unlikely that West Brom will be sold off to someone worse than the incumbent owners.
Albion fans don’t really even know who ultimately owns the club so at least a change in ownership should lead to some more transparency.
Let’s hope that this progresses because we’ve had plenty of stories like this crop up in the last few years without them going anywhere.
But based on the information shared by Percy, the Baggies are at breaking point financially and no sale this year could spell bad news for January.
In other West Brom news, David Prutton has predicted the Championship clash v Watford.