Wright View: It’s time for West Brom fans to be excited as period of exclusivity expected by 22 December
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…
John Percy’s update about the West Brom takeover is possibly the most exciting update I’ve seen so far.
We still don’t know who the next owners of the Baggies are going to be with three consortiums reportedly in the running to buy the Black Country club. But the fact they’re set to write off Albion’s huge level of debt suggests they’re serious.
Writing on The Telegraph website on Tuesday (12 December), Percy reported that Guochuan Lai is in advanced talks to sell West Brom. One of the three groups the Chinese chairman is in talks with is from the USA, another is from Nigeria and the other is unknown.
According to Percy, the Americans are leading the race at this stage.
What’s really exciting about the update is that Lai is “expected to grant exclusivity to the best option within the next 10 days”, which will be 22 December based on the fact the report was published on 12 December.
It means that the end of the road could be in sight for West Brom fans, who’ve been campaigning for change at The Hawthorns for over a year.
Percy reports that the buyer of West Brom will pay £30million for the club and also agree to write off the club’s debt.
This report says that sum is £30million but Chris Lepkowski reports that the current debt exceeds £50million, meaning that an overall takeover cost will be at least £80million.
It says a lot that three potential buyers are agreeing to essentially burn their cash by paying off all the debt that Lai has run up in his tenure at The Hawthorns.
Albion followed up this takeover news with a hard-fought 2-0 win away at Rotherham in the Championship to continue showing their promotion credentials.
Carlos Corberan is doing wonders in the dug out and let’s hope that before the January transfer window is over, he’s got a new boss who can give him some cash to go out and sign a few players who can help us see out a top-six finish.
In other West Brom news, the Rotherham iFollow commentator couldn’t hide his bitterness after Jed Wallace’s goal on Tuesday night.