Chris Lepkowski shares West Brom ‘fear’ ahead of January transfer window
Chris Lepkowski is fearful that the ownership situation at West Brom will not be resolved before January, meaning first-team players could be sold.
Former Birmingham Mail reporter Lepkowski revealed last week that at least two parties are waiting in the wings to end Guochuan Lai’s time as majority shareholder at The Hawthorns, with one of those said to be “extremely serious”.
However, if the takeover does not go through before the start of 2024, Albion may be forced to cash in on at least one player in order to keep money flowing into the club.
Speaking on The Liquidator podcast [12 November, 17m 20s], Lepkowski said: “The big issue for me is the whole New Year period. As we all know, regardless of the industry, there is generally a slowing down around Christmas.
“We have a transfer window coming up, and there have been suggestions we will be okay in January and that no players will leave. I’m not so sure.
“In recent weeks there’s talk of Championship clubs getting a payment as part of a Premier League agreement. That may help us but we’re losing money and know we’re in a difficult situation.
“My fear is that this needs to be sorted out sooner rather than later so that when we go into the new year transfer period, even if we haven’t got new owners over the line just yet, at least we’re in a place that we know we’re in the final throes of them – whoever they may be – becoming our new owners.
“We need the guarantee that come January, we won’t be losing players. I’m just not so sure.”
Speed things up
After some positive developments in recent weeks, things do appear to have slowed down on the takeover front all of a sudden.
That is not to say there is not activity going on behind the scenes that is not being made public, but we could do with the process speeding up.
The target has to be finalising this process by January – or at least get the deal as good as agreed – so that no players have to be sold.
In an ideal world, Carlos Corberan will be adding to his squad rather than losing anyone, but it remains to be seen if that will happen.
Having cashed in on Dara O’Shea in the summer, the Baggies could do without weakening their squad midway through the campaign.
Promotion is a realistic prospect under Corberan this season, so let’s just hope the Spaniard is given all the support he needs.
In other West Brom news, Southampton boss Russell Martin made a “huge” admission about Albion following their showdown at the weekend.