Talk of a potential West Brom takeover has been stirring up ahead of January.
West Brom owner Guochuan Lai has become a widely disliked figure among the Baggies faithful.
He’s been at the club for coming up to eight years now, but he started to lose the faith of fans when a company owned by himself took out a £4.95million loan during the pandemic, which remains unpaid.
Ahead of January, fans have speculated about a possible takeover, and it appears that potential new owners could be on the horizon too.
What is the latest on a West Brom takeover?
Various prospective buyers have been mentioned on social media.
But the only concrete bit of recent information has come from The Telegraph’s John Percy.
He said earlier this week that progress is definitely being made on a potential West Brom takeover and that all involved hope to have a deal concluded by January.
Percy also revealed that the takeover is headed by two front-runners; a party from Nigeria and a party from the US.
Kieran Maguire confirms West Brom fear
West Brom previously took out a sizeable £20million loan from MSD Holdings, which the club recently announced that they had extended.
And taking to X yesterday, football finance guru Kieran Maguire confirmed West Brom fans’ fears that the extended loan is secured on the Baggies’ stadium, The Hawthorns.
What does this mean for West Brom?
Effectively that, if West Brom can’t repay the loan, then their stadium could be seized instead.
It’s a somewhat common practise for football clubs in the modern era with the likes of Derby County, Sunderland, and Southampton having been in similar predicaments in recent years; al three of which had also taken loans from MSD.
But a positive for West Brom, aside from the takeover speculation which seems to be moving forward, is the idea that MSD wouldn’t have extended the loan if they didn’t think it the club could repay it in time.
Football is a business and it wouldn’t make business sense for MSD to extend the loan if they weren’t fully confident of it being repaid.
And that faith from MSD could suggest that they believe, or even know that a takeover is coming, which could be the final piece in the jigsaw for West Brom.
Carlos Corberan is working wonders on the pitch and if the Baggies can get new owners in place for January then they could have a fruitful winter window and cement their promotion push.
Up next though is a home game vs league leaders Leicester City.