Adrian Goldberg responds to ‘impossible’ West Brom claim as takeover wait continues
Adrian Goldberg says it is imperative West Brom expand their fanbase if they are to grow as a club, regardless of the takeover situation.
The Telegraph reported on 12 December that Guochuan Lai was in advanced talks with multiple groups over a £60million takeover at The Hawthorns.
Even if new owners come on board, though, former BBC broadcaster Goldberg has pointed out that West Brom’s problems will not necessarily be resolved.
“There were one or two reports before Christmas suggesting news would be imminent, but nothing came to materialise,” he said on The Liquidator podcast [8 January, 19m 54s]
“One important bit of news, which has been echoed by Action for Albion, is that the days of an owner coming into a club and splashing the cash and taking huge risk on buying new players, they’re coming to an end.
“This is not yet a league policy, but one way or another this is coming. By 2025-26, the season after next, there will be wage discipline in the Championship, meaning you can spend only 70 per cent of what you get through the gate or merchandising, when it comes to wages and transfers.
“At the moment you can lose £39m over three seasons, so £13m a season, but that method of measuring is going to switch.
“So the more people through the gate, the more they pay, the more food and drink they consume, the more shirts they buy, the more money that goes into your pot of income, but you’ll only be able to spend 70 per cent of that.
“The only way Albion are going to grow in the longer term is by looking to grow the fanbase of the club, however difficult that may be.
“You have 20,000 people telling you ‘you can’t do it, it’s impossible’, but unless we do that we’re going nowhere. We’re not going to progress from the situation we’re in.”
New owners imperative
These new rules being rolled out by the EFL make perfect sense on the face of it. They are effectively a way of stopping clubs from spending outside of their means.
Having mega rich owners is all well and good, but if that income stream all of a sudden dries up, the club will be left in major trouble.
Albion could do with having multiple millions pumped into the club to firstly pay off the growing debts, but to also to freshen up a squad that will be broken up a fair bit in the summer.
That means getting new owners on board right now is imperative, as it will allow them to settle in and basically steady the ship before these new rules are implemented.
In the longer term, the aim will no doubt to be getting The Hawthorns packed out every week, which will be achieved by making the Baggies competitive.
Thanks to the work of Carlos Corberan, that is currently the case. With the Spaniard at the helm, and some investment in the squad in the summer, there is no reason why Albion cannot push on.
In other West Brom news, Adrian Goldberg was left “baffled” by a transfer development this month.