Deadline looming: All we know about Guochuan Lai's £4.95 million West Brom loan
West Brom fans are eagerly awaiting news regarding owner Guochuan Lai's controversial £4.95 million loan he took from the club - with the deadline for repayment just under 36 hours away.
Back in June, as Albion confirmed their accounts, Lai released a statement via the club stating that he had taken out the loan to put into one of his other companies that had suffered the impacts of Covid-19.
Baggies fans were left angered by the news that Lai, who has come in for heavy criticism from the fan base in the past, had taken money out of the club.
Originally Lai had agreed to pay the money back by September 2021 - but a new date had been set for December 31.
In the statement in June, here is what Lai said:
"I would like to publicly thank club staff and supporters for their ongoing loyalty to the football club after two disappointing seasons.
“I believe we have made positive progress in recent months and the appointment of Ron Gourlay as Chief Executive Officer in February has already strengthened the football club. The early acquisitions of John Swift and Jed Wallace provide us with added quality as the club continues to embrace a period of positive change.
“I remain committed to returning the football club to the Premier League and I am confident we will be able to compete for promotion from the Championship this coming season.
“The club’s annual accounts for the 2020/21 season detail a loan to Wisdom Smart Corporation Limited, a related party to me. Regrettably, the COVID-19 pandemic saw my international businesses suffer, particularly those in the hospitality and entertainment sector, which experienced an almost complete closure for long periods, and in March 2021 I received a loan from the football club.
“The upturn in the global economy has brought with it greater positivity and I can confirm I will repay the loan in full, with interest, by the end of the current calendar year and the funds will be available to the club during the January 2023 transfer window.
“I am looking forward to an exciting season for Albion and again thank fans for their dedicated support of the football club. I will return to The Hawthorns to watch a game at the earliest opportunity, and I am excited to see the progress the team has made this summer.”
Lai hasn't made any other comments on the loan - but what else has been said?
In June, CEO Ron Gourlay insisted he was 'absolutely convinced' that the loan, which has risen to £5 million with interest, will be re-paid.
He said: “The businesses he (Lai) has in China and Hong Kong are very much in the hospitality environments.
“I think it was during that period of time, income from those type of businesses was shot down.
“I think he needed some revenue and the club was one of his other businesses that had that revenue. It had the cash in the bank.
“I wasn’t involved in it. Buy my understanding is that the money will be returned.
“That has come from the owner. From the owner to the board and from the owner to the fans.
“I’m absolutely convinced that money will come in.”
Then in minutes of the latest Albion Assembly earlier this month, Gourlay insisted that he had 'been assured by Guochuan Lai that the £4.95m loan owed to the football club by Wisdom Smart will be repaid by the revised deadline of December 31, 2022'.
