West Brom takeover: Matt Slater now details ‘interesting’ mystery man in Hawthorns bidding
There is an “interesting” unnamed figured involved in one of the bids currently looking to buy West Brom, according to Matt Slater.
The Athletic journalist replied to a comment on his story for the outlet’s website on 12 January to say that he has been told about one person included in the group, considered the frontrunners, put together by Chris Farnell and Mohamed Elkashashy, who have teamed up with Alex Hearn.
While Slater doesn’t reveal the name of this mystery character he does state that they are not Nigerian, after previous reports of an interested party from the West African state, only for the three offers now on the table to be from the British-Egyptian group, Armenian entrepreneur Roman Gevorkyan, and the family of Indian-American Shilen Patel.
Slater wrote: “I try not to comment too much on other people’s stories but it’s not something that I’m aware of. That said, the Farnell/Elkashashy/Hearn group does include other investors.
“I’ve been told about one of those and it’s an interesting name but they’re not Nigerian.”
Intrigue
With close to half of the transfer window already passed it is starting to look like the takeover situation isn’t going to move fast enough to provide much relief to the financial picture before the end of the month.
Since Slater suggests that the buy-out of current majority shareholder Guochuan Lai is coming to a head, it may provide the hierarchy at The Hawthorns with enough confidence to make some moves based on the expectation of a deal being done in the near future.
New contracts for current players, such as Everton-target Tom Fellows, are thought to be advancing which might indicate that Lai is close to a decision.
Plenty of fans will just be looking forward to the Chinese businessman selling his shares and moving on, but the hope has to ultimately be that he makes the right choice for the club’s longer-term future.
Given his recent time in charge there won’t perhaps be a huge amount of confidence in whether that will factor into his decision-making, but it at least seems like West Brom are are on the brink of a new era.
And if it is the supposed frontrunners who are able to get the deal over the line then the mystery name that Slater has alluded to will perhaps become known sooner rather than later.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies are in the hunt for an international striker who looks to be available for a move this month.