Lai

[WBA123]

I've always been quite calm about his ownership as long as he left the club to be self sufficient.

But according to Val we still need to sell before we buy. If we don't have the Periera money then it is clear he is pocketing the cash from player sales. We knew something was dodgy when The Times printed the Dowling thing about the Periera sale. There was also something fishy about the Hegazi deal who also went to the Middle East. He most likely pocketed that £4m too.

Its clearly an issue if he is taking money out of the club. I read on here a month or so ago about potential fan purchase of the club, Mick was looking into I think? Did anything happen with that?

I think it will be extremely hard to raise £100m+ but its worth looking at, because you would think the more that Lai takes out of the club the weaker we will become - but also potentially the price to sell the club will be lower to recover his losses.

[Barrera]

I think the statement about moving players out before we bring in more new players says it all ..... who else can we move on? Zohore .... can’t imagine that will bring in much funds although I expect he is another one on a good pay packet ....

The situation looks pretty dire to me ..... Lai is clearly asset stripping ...

Unless we get lucky with injuries and suspensions .... our first team is still pretty good for the Championship ....then we could be in for a few very thin seasons until Lai recoups his money and moves on ... it unbelievable that the FA allows this type of ownership to go on ... maybe that’s where the enquiry starts .... at the moment it seems Kai can do what the hell he wants ....

[bordering]

I've always been quite calm about his ownership as long as he left the club to be self sufficient.

But according to Val we still need to sell before we buy. If we don't have the Periera money then it is clear he is pocketing the cash from player sales. We knew something was dodgy when The Times printed the Dowling thing about the Periera sale. There was also something fishy about the Hegazi deal who also went to the Middle East. He most likely pocketed that £4m too.

Its clearly an issue if he is taking money out of the club. I read on here a month or so ago about potential fan purchase of the club, Mick was looking into I think? Did anything happen with that?

I think it will be extremely hard to raise £100m+ but its worth looking at, because you would think the more that Lai takes out of the club the weaker we will become - but also potentially the price to sell the club will be lower to recover his losses.

Think we need to face hard truths.
Lai paid far too much for the club- I would say its real worth was £75m -£100m not the purported £200m.
This gives Lai a huge problem – not just the possible financial loss but to the Chinese even more important is the loss of face in doing such a bad deal.

He cannot sell at any reasonable price and save face.
So his only option is to take all the cash he can- parachute payments, transfers, reduced playing staff til he gets his money back. Then his numbers add up

He still can’t sell because of loss of face- unless he can sell the Hawthorns for development & claims that was his plan all along- the value of the football club then playing God knows where is irrelevant & he can claim always was.


What of the football club? We slide to the lower reaches of the football league- I have no idea where that bottom might be but there are clubs of heritage, history & fanbase languishing- Sunderland, Derby County, Notts Forest & more it’s not hard to see how the mighty have fallen .

I say we can forget promotion this season or in any sensible time frame & soon we will forget Ismael and his high press or more likely he will forget us.

The venom spewed @ Lai does not help- his loss of face is his main concern.

He needs to get out with his reputation in China intact – that won’t be for selling the club for half what he paid even if he claws his money back by asset stripping the football side of his purchase.
It might be for selling a development opportunity @ the Hawthorns site – that is the only hope for the “Lai out” brigade.

But the club is going nowhere unless the direction is downwards

[Barrera]

I agree with much of the above .... about Lai’s loss of face .... and it does paint a pretty grim picture of the reality facing our club...

[Barrera]

I also agree with 123’s comments about the Saudi connections - Hegazi and Pereira both gone to obscure Saudi clubs for fees below their true worth ... something very fishy indeed about this ....

[DaveP67 is back!]

IMO legislation is needed to stop charlatans such as LAI taking money out of the country!
FOL

[WBA123]

Think we need to face hard truths.
Lai paid far too much for the club- I would say its real worth was £75m -£100m not the purported £200m.
This gives Lai a huge problem – not just the possible financial loss but to the Chinese even more important is the loss of face in doing such a bad deal.

He cannot sell at any reasonable price and save face.
So his only option is to take all the cash he can- parachute payments, transfers, reduced playing staff til he gets his money back. Then his numbers add up

He still can’t sell because of loss of face- unless he can sell the Hawthorns for development & claims that was his plan all along- the value of the football club then playing God knows where is irrelevant & he can claim always was.


What of the football club? We slide to the lower reaches of the football league- I have no idea where that bottom might be but there are clubs of heritage, history & fanbase languishing- Sunderland, Derby County, Notts Forest & more it’s not hard to see how the mighty have fallen .

I say we can forget promotion this season or in any sensible time frame & soon we will forget Ismael and his high press or more likely he will forget us.

The venom spewed @ Lai does not help- his loss of face is his main concern.

He needs to get out with his reputation in China intact – that won’t be for selling the club for half what he paid even if he claws his money back by asset stripping the football side of his purchase.
It might be for selling a development opportunity @ the Hawthorns site – that is the only hope for the “Lai out” brigade.

But the club is going nowhere unless the direction is downwards

I'm not sure I fully agree, the price of a transaction of this nature can be hidden or at the very least misleading if he cares about losing face. Or the deal can be 'worth xxxx' when in reality it isn't (for example including the Periera and Hegazi money)

We still have one of the strongest first XI's on paper this season and promising signs of a great manager. Providing everyone stays fit, we have a good chance of going back up, which has never been more important because its Premier League money which will save us. The issues will be if we don't go up in the next couple of years then we have a real danger of becoming one of the clubs you mention.

[Leicesterbaggie]

But surely this is why Lai should be investing as we are worth far more to him on the market as a Premier League club. I'm no financial expert but that just seems obvious to me, or am I missing something?

[Barrera]

Investing in a couple of decent players - especially central midfield - and we would do wonders for our automatic chances .... any fool can see this .... but not our Chairman. Who fills in when a Mowatt gets injured or Livermore gets suspended ..... Castro? Snodgrass?

Luckily we still have a decent squad for the Championship .... but I just fear for us if injuries, suspensions and a few COVID cases come into play.

I am also p***** about the money being pocketed though. Disgrace.

FOL

[mickd1961]

If Lai is like every other Chinese person I’ve ever met there’s only one thing that interests him and that’s the money!

You can forget all about “loss of face”, as long as the cash is right he’ll suck up that aspect of the situation!

They are the greediest, nastiest little people I’ve even come across, they’ll trample over their own granny if it helps them gain an extra penny.

I did some figures on fan ownership.

Let’s say we use our core support of 20,000 as a tool for the purposes of this exercise.

If 20,000 people each owned one share at £5000 a share that would give Lai £100m.

To get to £200m each share would cost £10,000.

I think a substantial number of people would put £5000 into this, I think £10,000 is way too much for most people.

I’m lucky and would probably be able to risk £100k but would we really want any shareholder having more shares than another?

I’m not an expert in these matters so is anybody on here from a legal background and able to advise?