Guochuan Lai was heavily criticised during his time at West Brom.

Pete Hanson

Thu 21 December 2023 19:10, UK

West Brom fans are hoping for some early Christmas cheer and they should be about to find out some takeover news imminently, given the latest update we received.

Telegraph journalist John Percy took to X last week to say controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai was due to name a preferred bidder “very soon”.

Writing in the Telegraph (12 December), Percy expanded to say that Lai is “expected to grant exclusivity to the best option within the next 10 days”.

If that timeline was indeed accurate then it means Baggies fans should be expecting an update by no later than December 22, just in time for Santa to pack up the sleigh and deliver the goods.

Percy has stated that Lai is in talks with three different consortiums, with one of the groups from America and another from Nigeria – the former having been said to be leading the race.

Of course, there will still be plenty of checks and balances to go through, and the price may be the sticking point, with Percy having said the total value could be about £60million.

So, whoever gets the green light to take over at The Hawthorns will need some pretty serious coin to get Albion back in the black.

And, of course, the ideal scenario would have been to have everything tied up in time for the January transfer window to allow Carlos Corberan the chance to add to his squad in the hope of maintaining the push for a top-six finish this season.

Given we are only 10 days away from the New Year that part looks pretty unlikely, but really all fans want is the assurance that the club are back in a good place financially, the only nerves will be about whether players will have to be sold if things are not fully sorted.

Still, right now this is about baby steps and getting a deal sorted so that everyone involved can finally move on. Let’s hope for some good news in the next 24 hours.

In other West Brom news, a young duo have departed The Hawthorns on loan.