Simon Jordan explains why West Brom may be attractive to new owners with £200m claim
Simon Jordan has explained that prospective new owners of West Brom will look at the club as an investment, with a potential value of £200million in the future if they manage it correctly.
Jordan was joined by Action for Albion committee member Alistair Jones live on talkSPORT [20 September], where he explained that the club would be an attractive prospect for any potential owners looking to buy.
This comes following claims that Guochuan Lai is looking to sell his majority share in the club, and Jordan has suggested that it would be a good buy for any potential investors.
Speaking live on talkSPORT [20 September, 11:30], Jordan explained: “I think people would buy this football club. Again, people are not, nobody wants to pay a guy that is going on the way out anything more than they have to.
“They’ll pick up the liabilities, they’ll pick up debt, and accept that as a price on the ticket, but for someone exiting with money on the way in is going to be the challenge.
“We’ll see if anyone has an appetite to pay him 30 or 35 million quid, but I don’t think it’s a bad buy for those that think a football club like West Bromwich Albion that’s capable, with a decent bit of management and a little bit of money, of getting themselves back into the mix of being a Premiership football club.
“If you look at that and say, ‘if I’ve put £35million on the table, picked up some debts that I can restructure and pay over a period of time, and cash flow through, and [if I] have to spend another 20 or 30 [million] to get myself in a position where I might be able to get into the Premier League if I manage this football club properly and make the right managerial appointments’.
“All of a sudden you’ve got a football club that’s cost you 60 million quid that’s now in a territory of being spoken about in the £150-200million bracket. It becomes a transaction that people can see in their mind’s eye.”
Positive news for West Brom fans
It feels as if all discussion surrounding the ownership situation at West Brom has been full of negativity and doubt, which isn’t a surprise given the difficult situation they find themselves in, but Jordan’s latest comments will provide a positive look at things.
The suggestion that a prospective new owner would be able to turn the club into a Premier League outfit once again, and thus boost the value and the mood around The Hawthorns, will be music to the ears of Baggies fans.
Of course, for this to happen they would need the right owner, who understands the club and wants to bring them forward rather than using them as a simple investment opportunity, but it remains entirely positive that the future could be bright.
Looking at Coventry City, Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City in the last year, each club has been purchased by ambitious owners who are aiming high with plans of reaching new heights, and there’s no reason West Brom couldn’t join that list.
In other West Brom news, one player will be expected to step up after recent injury news.