West Brom: Kieran Maguire shares ‘downside’ to takeover talks as doubts raised over bidder
Kieran Maguire has admitted not all the bidders looking to take control at West Brom are ones he would want to own his football club.
Speaking on The Price of Football podcast on Thursday (18 January, 55:48), the football finance expert said the favourite to take over involves Manchester-based lawyer Chris Farnell, who he warned that Charlton Athletic fans won’t have nice things to say about.
But he believes it’s a positive that Guochuan Lai, the Baggies’ controlling shareholder, is listening to “serious offers” as Armenian entrepreneur Roman Gevorkyan and American businessman Shilen Patel are also in talks over a potential takeover at the Hawthorns.
“There are three potential bidders, one of which appears to be the favourite,” said Maguire. “Then you go ‘well, this is two steps forward and one step back’. It involves a guy called Chris Farnell. Talk to Charlton fans I believe about Chris Farnell, they don’t have the greatest of praise of him.
“He’s certainly been involved, he’s a lawyer based I think in Altrincham, Manchester way. He’s also involved with the company called Warmfront Holdings, which has lent money to West Bromwich Albion at 5 per cent interest a month. They are a local heating company, but at least they’re interested.
“There’s an Armenian investor, who’s called Noah Investments, multi-club model, they’re interested. Then a third party as well.
“Guochuan Lai does appear to be interested in listening to serious offers and the fact that he’s having some form of communication has to be a positive. The downside of that is not all of these bidders would be ones who I’d necessarily want owning my football club.”
Question marks
There are understandably question marks around the bidders looking to take over at West Brom as there is very little known about them.
While you wouldn’t think anyone could do much worse of a job than Lai has since he took a majority stake in 2016, you have to ask what the motivations are for the people who want to buy the club.
The last thing the Baggies need is more instability and someone to come in whose heart isn’t in the right place, so the fans would probably welcome some communication from the potential new owners on that front.
The positive is, though, that a deal does look likely to take place soon as the club’s future is still very much at risk until someone signs on the dotted line.
You would just like to think that whoever does eventually win the race puts the right plans in place to remove all of the uncertainty and take the club forward.
In other West Brom news, Caleb Taylor has sent a message as an Albion exit has been confirmed.
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