New proposal will stop new West Brom owners from ‘splurging millions’ – Adrian Goldberg
Adrian Goldberg has suggested that new rules that are set to be introduced in the Championship will prevent any new owners at West Brom from “splurging millions” on transfers.
The Baggies are reportedly nearing a takeover that will bring an end to Guochuan Lai’s time at The Hawthorns after a miserable few seasons that have seen Albion limited to free transfers and loan deals in the transfer market [Express & Star, 13 December].
However, it seems unlikely that the prospective new owners at The Hawthorns will be able to immediately spend heavily in the transfer market, with Goldberg suggesting new proposals will put an end to the heavy spending used by the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea.
Speaking on The Liquidator podcast (17 December, 20:00) he said: “The proposal at the moment is that clubs in the Championship would not be able to spend more than 70 per cent of their income on salaries.
“The idea is that the new deal is agreed between the Premier League and the EFL, the clubs in the Championship would be restricted in that way. The 70 per cent figure comes from UEFA, the idea is to then filter that all the way down through the leagues.
“It seems to me to be a very good idea, but it also means that because Albion have been a squad that have overspent relative to their income in recent seasons that we would have to trim our wage bill even further.
“So it’s another complicating factor as we look towards a new owner as we can’t look to an owner now coming in and just splurging millions on the club because they would have to keep their spending under control.”
Chris Lepkowski agreed saying: “It does mean that the notion that somebody is going to come into West Bromwich Albion or any club and start bankrolling or start doing a Jack Walker or a Roman Abramovich. Those days are going, those days are in the past and it simply will not be possible to do that.
“It’s certainly going to impact the new owners, we are going to be bound by this new rule coming in.”
Different approach
So often when a new owner arrives at a football club, the expectation is that they will immediately wave a magic wand and solve all of their issues by spending their way out of trouble but that no longer appears possible in the EFL.
West Brom have already overspent in the past and currently, their squad is already worth more than 70 per cent of their income as shown by the constant need for new loans at The Hawthorns, so new owners can’t just bankroll new transfers immediately.
It is easy to recognise that the Baggies need to add to their squad to win promotion to the Premier League, but managing to make those additions within the laws of football is much harder and Albion may have to restructure slightly before splurging millions.
Completing a takeover may be a step in the right direction, but it was never going to be an immediate fix. There may be a bit of hope on the horizon for supporters, but West Brom aren’t completely out of the woods just yet.
In other West Brom news, Carlos Corberan needs “bags of cash” to reportedly solve the current Baggies striker “crisis”