Wright View: Guochuan Lai won’t be able to give Carlos Corberan what he wants at West Brom as news emerges
Danny Wright is a lifelong West Brom fan thanks to his dad, who grew up idolising Cyrille Regis and John Wile. Danny’s had to endure the likes of Victor Anichebe and Diego Lugano. He’s now putting his passion for the Albion into words with a regular fan view for West Brom News…
Carlos Corberan wants to strengthen the West Brom squad in the January transfer window.
It’s fairly obvious why he wants to do that. Injuries have been a thorn in his side this season and a few new faces could provide the Albion with the push they need to really cement their spot in the top six.
As quoted by the Birmingham Mail on Saturday (9 December), Corberan confirmed his desire to sign a replacement for Matt Phillips after it was announced that the Scottish wide-man will be sidelined until at least April with a torn hamstring.
“Now we need to replace Phillips,” said the Baggies boss. “It’s something nobody expected and now it’s happened.
“Things can still happen in that time and Phillips is the clear example.
“With the injury of Phillips we must now watch our possibilities.
“A lot of things can happen between the market opening and closing, before we can talk in detail.”
While it might be a shock for Corberan, Phillips’ injury isn’t a surprise to me – he seems to get injured every winter – but this setback for the ex-QPR ace is a bigger blow than any of his previous ones due to how well he had been playing.
It’s also an even bigger setback when you consider the fact West Brom might not be able to sign anyone in the January transfer window thanks to Guochuan Lai’s failure to pump any funds into the club.
While a takeover supposedly continues to develop behind the scenes at The Hawthorns, further funding has been drawn from MSD Holdings, raising Albion’s debt and hurting any hopes of being able to do much business in January.
As confirmed by West Brom in November, the additional funding is to “support the ongoing funding of the football club’s general business operations” and not to add to Corberan’s transfer kitty.
On 19 September, Telegraph journalist John Percy reported that the Baggies didn’t sell enough players in the summer transfer window and would likely face a fire sale this January if they don’t have new owners by then.
That new funding from MSD may have stopped that potential fire sale but it doesn’t mean that new faces are guaranteed to come in.
Corberan won’t just want a replacement for Phillips, he’ll no doubt want to add to his centre-back options and his strikeforce. Phillips is also a versatile player so losing him to injury means losing a player who can play on both wings, in both wing-back positions and even up front.
Will Lai free up any kind of funds for Corberan to do that? Absolutely no chance.
He’s never done it before so he’s not going to do it now.
In other West Brom news, Don Goodman has predicted the scoreline between Albion and Sunderland.