Callum O'Connell

Wed 20 September 2023 12:10, UK

Simon Jordan has suggested West Brom could fall into “financial and economic meltdown” if majority shareholder Guochuan Lai doesn’t alter his demands and expectations at the club.

Jordan was joined by Action For Albion committee member Alistair Jones, where he discussed the ongoing ownership situation at The Hawthorns, and suggested the club have found themselves going in circles.

Since Lai doesn’t want to invest his own money, it becomes unlikely that any buyer will value the club at the price he wants to sell at, with debts also looming, amid a downward spiral for West Brom.

Speaking live on talkSPORT [20 September, 11:24 AM], White and Jordan spoke to Jones and explained the potential implications of Lai’s demands in his attempt to sell the club.

Jordan stated: “I think they [Action for Albion] have already won their battle. I don’t think he [Lai] wants to be there any more. It becomes about how he exits and what their realistic expectations are. The next stumbling block will be the expectations of a departing owner.

“If he’s sat in situ, and doesn’t want to fund the football club, and doesn’t want it to cost him anything, but wants to achieve an outcome commensurate with his expectations, and if those expectations can’t be met by a potential buyer that doesn’t value it in the same way as the price tag of the seller, then you’re stuck in a situation where you go in a circle.

“Then you get back in the situation where Alastair [Jones] might be concerned about, if he’s not going to fund it, and it needs funding and there’s a shortfall between what it’s generating against what the current cost implications of it are.

“If he’s not prepared to fund it and then no one’s prepared to buy it because he doesn’t acquiesce to a price, then you’re going to find yourself in one space.

“The football club that starts to move towards an outcome that is very, very challenging, which is financial and economic meltdown and all that goes with that.”

Lai needs to be realistic with his expectations

As detailed by both Jordan and Jones on talkSPORT, the situation surrounding the eventual sale of the club will be decided almost entirely by whether Lai is prepared to accept an offer from the club at a value that the seller is prepared to pay, rather than his own high demands.

With the majority shareholder not willing to invest as he wishes to make the club a self-sustaining project, something Jones claims is “impossible” in the Championship, it means the total value of the club will start to depreciate in the eyes of prospective buyers.

The potential financial and economic meltdown at The Hawthorns, as suggested as a very real and serious possibility by Jordan, could potentially leave the club in administration, where they would be forced to sell players to recoup money until a buyer is found.

This can leave clubs in a perilous situation where, if they are unable to find a buyer, the club could cease to exist with the financial implications simply too much for administrators to deal with.

The long-term future of West Bromwich Albion could rest with Lai – and that’s not a situation they want to be in.

In other West Brom news, one key player will have to step up after the latest injury news.