Joseph Masi has been speaking on the Baggies Broadcast podcast about the peculiar makeup of the club’s board.
The Baggies returned to action following the international break with a victory at home to Birmingham City, which saw Karlan Grant net his fifth goal of the season as he appears to be thriving under Valerien Ismael.
Will Johnstone stay at West Brom?
Yes
No
Over the summer, Ismael was restricted heavily in the transfer market as he was only being able to bring in free or loan signings. This should have come as no surprise, however, given that Guochuan Lai has wanted to sell the club for a long time now, even when they were in the top flight.
Masi spoke about the people who are in positions of power at The Hawthorns.
“In my opinion, we don’t really know a lot about what’s going on behind the scenes at Albion. We know that Guochuan Lai is an absent owner, we know that he shows very little interest in the club – that’s a fact.
“We know that Ken [Xu Ke], from speaking to people about Ken, we know he’s a very, very intelligent man, but he’s in his mid-30s and he is in the job because he is the son of Lai’s mate – that’s a fact.
“I’m not saying he isn’t doing a good job – I’m not saying that for one minute. What I’m saying is, Ken being in that job as CEO is no different to you [Luke Hatfield] winning the EuroMillions in 25 years’ time, buying Albion and making my son CEO; it’s just no different. He might be doing a great job, but we don’t really know what job he’s doing.
“But that is the situation we find ourselves in. It is extraordinary that Ken is Albion’s CEO, it is extraordinary.”
TIF Thoughts on West Brom…
As Masi stated, West Brom’s owner is certainly a distant one and appears to not hold much of an interest in the club, with him last attending a Baggies match over two and a half years ago, all while investing the bare minimum into the club.
Even when they were in the Premier League last season, West Brom managed to splash out £37 million, although two of those signings were loan deals turned into permanent ones and they relied heavily on several loan signings to try and keep them up, which in the long term makes no sense, as Lai’s best way of getting out of West Brom is surely by turning them into a regular Premier League side.
In other news: ‘I was a very big fan’ – Presenter questions decision made by WBA man