Lewis Cox comment: The Hawthorns is West Brom's home – risking it is unthinkable

The Hawthorns, one of English football's historic and iconic names and stadia, was this week settled against as a once-prudently, sustainably and enviously run club sought desperately-needed external funds to keep ticking over.

The jolting confirmation, understandably, has sent shockwaves through the Baggies supporter base.

There is no West Bromwich Albion without The Hawthorns. The same goes for any club still to move from their true home, even fierce and bitter rivals down the road.

Well, technically, there could be a club – but it wouldn't be the West Bromwich Albion tens of thousands of supporters worldwide know and love.

This loan, the £20million borrowed from United States private investment firm MSD Holdings – a popular lender with English clubs – has seen Albion place their home, not to mention assets including their daily training base, up as leverage, collateral, to continue running.

The club have moved to pass on assurances that such a 'last resort' as selling the family silver will not be reached but, unfortunately, nobody has a crystal ball to see into the future as how things might escalate.

It really is a truly sad state of affairs to have reached this point. Though it must be stressed this loans aren't hugely rare, this was a club the envy of most prior to its takeover six years ago.

A club's home is a shrine to supporters. It is a home away from their own home. Somewhere they can go once a week, maybe even more if they are lucky, and leave reality behind for at least 90 minutes.

To shout, swear, cheer, chant, sing, cry, argue, laugh, whatever. It is a place that will have stirred the soul in every supporter at least once in their lifetime.

Everybody remembers their first time. That first time through the concourse and out the tunnel into the stand, taking in the sheer scale of their team's stomping ground. Being a part of something so dear.

In seeing The Hawthorns listed as an asset against sizeable a loan, Baggies fans have been force-fed a glimpse into the simply unimaginable.

Hopefully the day will never come to pass. In an ideal world Albion's position on and off the field over the next couple of years stabilises and success on the pitch – the start of a journey which looks promising under Carlos Corberan's inspiring work – can provide a lifeline to the desperate failings off it.

But, alas, we do not always live in an ideal world and supporters' fret about this week's news, indeed at a time controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai's £5m loan repayment deadline arrives TODAY, is entirely justified.

They do not see and hope for the best-case scenario, when the future of their very being as a supporter is threatened they naturally fear the worst. That is the pessimist in all of us, especially us football supporters.

It is a scary time to be an Albion fan, of that there is no doubt. It might get better, it could get worse. It's far from come out the blue, this storm has been brewing for months and years but things have reached a head in recent weeks and the stormclouds are dark.

Speaking of darkness, another understandable plea from worried supporters is not to be left in the dark, without answers, without anything to allay fears that everything could implode.

Transparency will not solve or rectify any ownership or financial problems but it could just go some way to ever so slightly satisfying those loyal followers stricken with concern.

Mercifully, Corberan and his players could hardly do any more on the pitch at the moment to clear those clouds and provide a glimmer of light. It's a glimmer, but it's better than nothing. Barely weeks ago the club was staring into the abyss, being stuck at the wrong end of the Championship table with seemingly no way out.

The Hawthorns is Albion's home. It has been since 1900, it should be making plans for an 125th anniversary, not fearing for its future. It has to be the home for another century. The club is not the club everybody loves without it.