American strategy emerges after West Brom takeover news – Finance Expert
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...
Dan Plumley has shared the longer-term strategy at play by American investors as they look to complete a takeover of West Brom in the coming weeks.
It comes after John Percy reported on 12 December that an American party was in pole position, with Guochuan Lai expected to grant exclusivity before 22 December.
The finance expert admitted that with a growing American influence in the Premier League, investing in Championship clubs with potential promotion on the cards could be a longer strategy.
“You have to look at this in a much bigger picture,” he exclusively told West Brom News.
“We can see a whole range of American influence in the Premier League whether that is a majority stake or a lot of clubs also now have minority stakes and we’re seeing that now filter down to the Championship.
“You can see the appeal if you can invest at a little bit of a lower price in the Championship than the Premier League, but you can take a club on that has aspirations and the potential to get into the Premier League and that’s your growth strategy.
“It does play into what we’ve seen in the English football market and a little bit wider in Europe as well, and one thing we have said about these consortiums and firms, the backdrop to that is they are longer-term investment plays and there will be probably return on investment in mind, but it’s a longer-term strategy.
“I think you can see that with the West Brom example, it’s a relatively cheaper acquisition than buying a Premier League club, but with the potential to turn it around and get it back to the Premier League and that’s where you can see the potential for the investors.”
In other West Brom news, Plumley has also predicted that a change of ownership is needed at The Hawthorns