The West Brom takeover – the first year of Guochuan Lai

Little was known of Guangzhou eco-town entrepreneur Guochuan Lai when he bought the club off Jeremy Peace for around £175million last summer. So, as with every new owner, supporters were wary of his intentions.

Peace had done well to stabilise the club in the Premier League, but there was a feeling among everyone – including the man himself – that he had taken the club as far as he could. It was time for a change.

Lai may have been unknown, but he brought with him the potential for growth on the pitch and globalisation off it.

Even though he made it clear he would run the club with the same pragmatism of Peace, it was still an exciting time.

Twelve months on, and even if the squad is currently dangerously understaffed, we have seen growth on the pitch thanks to the signings of Nacer Chadli, Jake Livermore, and Jay Rodriguez.

We’ve also seen globalisation off it; a new partnership with Werder Bremen of the Bundesliga, as well as the emergence of six ‘West Bromwich Albion’ soccer towns in China.

Despite this, there are still huge question marks hanging over Lai’s commitment to improving the club.

His motives for buying are now clear. With the weight of the Albion brand – or more specifically the Premier League brand – he can win lucrative housing development contracts in his homeland.

But the worry is, that while Lai benefits from being the owner of West Bromwich Albion, West Bromwich Albion isn’t benefiting from being owned by Lai.

There have been public displays of affection, like the free drink for fans at his first home game, the thumbs up on the motorway, and the posed photos outside The Hawthorns.

Beaming from ear to ear each time, he looks like he rather enjoys his new-found status as a football club owner, and is arguably a more personable owner than Peace.

The new chairman John Williams has also been more approachable; whether it is buying pints for supporters in Hong Kong, attending Albion Assembly fan meetings, or having informal cuppas with concerned supporters at The Hawthorns.

Chief Executive Martin Goodman reduced season ticket prices by five per cent, suggesting the new regime is attempting to address the problems that have recently plagued the club.

But actions speak louder than interactions. It appears Lai is not plunging millions of pounds of his personal wealth into the club – if he has any left following the purchase. Certainly not this summer at least.

Since his arrival, the Baggies have earned £14million in the sales of Saido Berahino and Craig Gardner, and dropped Jonas Olsson, Darren Fletcher, and Sebastien Pocognoli off the wage bill.

If Chadli’s £13m arrival came out of last summer’s budget, that means the club have spent a total of £23m rising to a potential £26m on Jake Livermore, Jay Rodriguez and Ahmed Hegazi.

That is £12m of outlay following a season that yielded £120m worth of prize money.

We are told the money spent on Yuning Zhang, believed to be around £7m, came from a separate pot to Pulis’s budget.

It’s highly unlikely the Chinese striker, who is on loan at Bremen for two years, will ever play for the Baggies, suggesting Lai is willing to dip his hand in his pocket for a commercial acquisition but not necessarily a footballing one.

There are still nearly four weeks of the window left, and with a changeable head coach who seems to delight in the last-minute rush, it would be dangerous to make any assumptions over expenditure.

But the familiar struggles in the transfer market this summer suggest the Baggies are operating on the same tight budget they were under Peace, even if the numbers in question have shot up because of television money.

What is worrying is that Lai only needs the Baggies to retain their Premier League status to hold any gravitas in China.

The next big step on the global scale of recognition would be getting the team into Europe, and it’s true Albion's Chinese owner harbours a long-term desire to break the Baggies into the top six.

But with the huge gap between the big clubs and the rest of the league ever widening, it would take mountains of cash to move Albion into that bracket. Cash he seems unwilling to spend, or just simply doesn’t have.

The first XI may have improved in the past 12 months, but with one week to go until the season starts, the squad is still perilously thin.

It's worth remembering there are several nuanced reasons behind those struggles in the market, it is not just down to finances. Location and Pulis’s own transfer policy also come into play.

The Albion head coach has already pulled out of a deal for Kieran Gibbs this summer because of bad character references, and he did the same last year for Ignacio Camacho.

But Pulis is the man who will carry the can if players don't perform. As frustrating as it is, he has every right to back out of deals if he's not completely convinced.

Bar three notable exceptions in Callum McManaman, Rickie Lambert, and James Chester, he has got pretty much every other signing spot on.

He proved last season that he deserves backing, and there's no doubt an ambitious owner willing to put his own money on the table would have helped speed things along this summer.

In years to come, Albion may benefit from refusing to dive head-first into the Premier League’s extortionate spending culture, and it’s worth remembering this steady approach has helped establish the club in the top tier.

There is also the element of Financial Fair Play to take into account. Only five clubs had a lower average attendance in the Premier League last season.

Hopefully Lai's desire to build Albion's global brand is part of long-term plan that will eventually boost how much the club can spend in the transfer market too.

But hypotheticals and long-term visions will not placate the mounting short-term concerns among the fan-base as the season nears it's start – action in the transfer market will.

So far this summer has felt incredibly similar to the last one, when Albion had only made one signing by this point.

That window was underwhelming at the time, although it turned out to be much better on grass than on paper.

Twelve months on from the takeover, the ethos of the club has not changed. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

But it does mean we are yet to see whether Lai can be the owner to take the club to the level that Peace couldn’t.