By Kieran Maguire

23rd Aug, 2023 | 8:00am

Kieran Maguire slams 'chaotic and clueless' Guochuan Lai after £2m West Brom news

West Brom owner Guochuan Lai is coming across as ‘desperate’ after taking an additional £2million loan out.

That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about Lai’s ‘chaotic’ management of the Baggies.

On top of West Brom’s £20million loan from MSD Holdings and the £4.95million taken out of the club by Lai to fund his faltering business during the pandemic, the Baggies chief also took a loan of £2million from heating company Warmfront Holdings loan.

West Brom are not the beneficiary of the loan, but it is a concern for the club that Lai continues to borrow additional funds despite failing to repay the £4.95million owed back to the club.

Lai has missed multiple deadlines, with his latest statement promising repayment in “early in the new year”.

Maguire criticised Lai’s running of the Midlands club and described his history of failed loan repayments as ‘disturbing’.

“Guochuan Lai’s decision to borrow an extra £2million and pay a default interest rate of five per cent a month doesn’t directly affect West Brom because of the pyramid structure of companies,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“But it is indicative of an individual who is either desperate or a fool – or perhaps both in the case of Lai.

“I think what is more disturbing is the £4.95million that Lai effectively borrowed from West Brom which was promised for repayment in 2022.

“Deadlines were missed and reassurances were given that it would be paid early this year – it is under very few people’s reckoning that August is deemed to be early in the year.

“It is very much a case of ‘watch this space’ in what appears to be a chaotic and clueless management style instigated by the owner.“

In other news, West Brom eye move for Reading star Nesta Guinness-Walker