The Gaouchan Lai era

[Squid]

He is/was indifferent to the fate of the club and would willingly have stripped it to the bone if he had been able to. No one made him pay an absurdly high price for the club, that was all down to him/his consortium. How anyone, especially an Albion fan, can feel sympathy for him is utterly bewildering.

That's who we are as fans. We are a generally nice bunch. Never any reports of anyone associated with Lai being directly abused unlike Dingles and Blackburn fans who have spat at their owners.

Tough to spit at someone the other side of the world tbf.

The likes of Ken et al still were on the scene though.

[Ted Maul]

He is/was indifferent to the fate of the club and would willingly have stripped it to the bone if he had been able to. No one made him pay an absurdly high price for the club, that was all down to him/his consortium. How anyone, especially an Albion fan, can feel sympathy for him is utterly bewildering.

That's who we are as fans. We are a generally nice bunch. Never any reports of anyone associated with Lai being directly abused unlike Dingles and Blackburn fans who have spat at their owners.

Tough to spit at someone the other side of the world tbf.

The likes of Ken et al still were on the scene though.

Also, for all the exaltation of the last 18 hours or so, we don't know how lucky we've been to have this resolved so swiftly. Lai was here for eight years and in that time we spent three in the PL and had a promotion, off the pitch it's only really been the last 18 months the fans have become really aware of the potential cliff edge we were facing. Unsurprising to see fans of clubs like Reading or Blackburn who have suffered with rogue owners for a longer period of time acting out a bit more. How long did the Blues spend fighting against Carson Yeung and then BSHL? To get this properly resolved in 18 months or so, and maintain a fairly strong footing on the pitch is mightily impressive from the few good eggs we do have in place at the club.

[Fulham Fallout]

Took over a Premier League club with an aging but competent squad that needed some new ideas. Had plenty of cash in the bank, a good academy and just needed some fresh investment into scouting and recruitment and a sensible choice for manager to replace Pulis who didn't want to be here.

He get us relegated, in debt, finding one of the worst managers in our history while doing so, a feat He would repeat years later in the Championship.

He sold one of the best assets we've ever had for peanuts due to trying to attempt illegal deals with him to get money out of the club, so instead resorted to just taking money out anyway.

Only thing he really got right at all, was Hiring Carlos Corberan, and he had no influence on that.

Don’t forget the proposed dividend from WBA Group Ltd to enable Lai to “repay” the loan.

[MancBaggie]

My view is that it is for the best that Lai and Co are moving on.

But I don't believe they are responsible for the decline in the football side of the club, and frankly that's all I care about.

They took control at a time when decline had set in, albeit we didn't know it. There was a core of good quality premiership players, sadly they were either already in decline or close to decline. With no prospect of receiving decent transfer fees ,we were left with the task of replacing these players with inadequate resources.

Where we spent reasonable amounts of money on players, it wasn't spent wisely.
The 40 to 45m spent on Burke, Diangana and Grant has shown very little return. Not sure any club of our financial standing could withstand such a financial hit.

Ultimately Lai has to take responsibility and the financial hit, for poor football related appointments. But can we be surprised that he made those mistakes. Even more attentive owners like Coates at Stoke screw up on appointing senior staff.

He has left us with a good manager, and a reasonable squad if players, given our financial straits. And most importantly now we have new leadership,,  hopefully a financial clean slate.

I think this is a very favourable view to hold on Lai Shabby... and one that's difficult to agree with.

Lai was the "owner" of the club and as such should have acted in the club's best interests. He made abject appointments in Gourlay and his mate's son Ken, and he actively sought to take money out of the club which he consistently lied about repaying. He sold our most saleable asset ever for a pittance due to his own personal greed - and I am convinced that his, or China's business dealings in Saudi profited from that deal - and then hid behind a wall of silence as he steadily milked the club dry.

If he'd just been a man that bought a club for a bit too much money and things got out of hand, I could forgive him, but he wasn't. He was a coward, a fraud and a crook and he endangered our very existence just to line his own pockets. Fuck him and good riddance.

This is where Im at

[Geralous]

Hope we can just put this sorry episode behind us. Prefer a welcoming atmosphere tonight rather than any anti Lai stuff.

[Woodman scoreboard]

A bit of both won't hurt get it all out make it a bit hostile

[Tom Joad]

My view is that it is for the best that Lai and Co are moving on.

But I don't believe they are responsible for the decline in the football side of the club, and frankly that's all I care about.

They took control at a time when decline had set in, albeit we didn't know it. There was a core of good quality premiership players, sadly they were either already in decline or close to decline. With no prospect of receiving decent transfer fees ,we were left with the task of replacing these players with inadequate resources.

Where we spent reasonable amounts of money on players, it wasn't spent wisely.
The 40 to 45m spent on Burke, Diangana and Grant has shown very little return. Not sure any club of our financial standing could withstand such a financial hit.

Ultimately Lai has to take responsibility and the financial hit, for poor football related appointments. But can we be surprised that he made those mistakes. Even more attentive owners like Coates at Stoke screw up on appointing senior staff.

He has left us with a good manager, and a reasonable squad if players, given our financial straits. And most importantly now we have new leadership,,  hopefully a financial clean slate.

I think this is a very favourable view to hold on Lai Shabby... and one that's difficult to agree with.

Lai was the "owner" of the club and as such should have acted in the club's best interests. He made abject appointments in Gourlay and his mate's son Ken, and he actively sought to take money out of the club which he consistently lied about repaying. He sold our most saleable asset ever for a pittance due to his own personal greed - and I am convinced that his, or China's business dealings in Saudi profited from that deal - and then hid behind a wall of silence as he steadily milked the club dry.

If he'd just been a man that bought a club for a bit too much money and things got out of hand, I could forgive him, but he wasn't. He was a coward, a fraud and a crook and he endangered our very existence just to line his own pockets. Fuck him and good riddance.

This is where Im at

Me n'all.   Oh, sure enough, he was sold a pup by the superfan JP, advised to take on Williams and Goodman, advised to let Pu;lis pay ridiculous money for donkeys.  It is what he did after that that rankles. We dodged a bullet, not completely, but just enough. (and he would have sold us to that sockless villa twat if he could have done).

[SW4Baggie]

My view is that it is for the best that Lai and Co are moving on.

But I don't believe they are responsible for the decline in the football side of the club, and frankly that's all I care about.

They took control at a time when decline had set in, albeit we didn't know it. There was a core of good quality premiership players, sadly they were either already in decline or close to decline. With no prospect of receiving decent transfer fees ,we were left with the task of replacing these players with inadequate resources.

Where we spent reasonable amounts of money on players, it wasn't spent wisely.
The 40 to 45m spent on Burke, Diangana and Grant has shown very little return. Not sure any club of our financial standing could withstand such a financial hit.

Ultimately Lai has to take responsibility and the financial hit, for poor football related appointments. But can we be surprised that he made those mistakes. Even more attentive owners like Coates at Stoke screw up on appointing senior staff.

He has left us with a good manager, and a reasonable squad if players, given our financial straits. And most importantly now we have new leadership,,  hopefully a financial clean slate.

I think this is a very favourable view to hold on Lai Shabby... and one that's difficult to agree with.

Lai was the "owner" of the club and as such should have acted in the club's best interests. He made abject appointments in Gourlay and his mate's son Ken, and he actively sought to take money out of the club which he consistently lied about repaying. He sold our most saleable asset ever for a pittance due to his own personal greed - and I am convinced that his, or China's business dealings in Saudi profited from that deal - and then hid behind a wall of silence as he steadily milked the club dry.

If he'd just been a man that bought a club for a bit too much money and things got out of hand, I could forgive him, but he wasn't. He was a coward, a fraud and a crook and he endangered our very existence just to line his own pockets. Fuck him and good riddance.

This is where Im at

Me n'all.   Oh, sure enough, he was sold a pup by the superfan JP, advised to take on Williams and Goodman, advised to let Pu;lis pay ridiculous money for donkeys.  It is what he did after that that rankles. We dodged a bullet, not completely, but just enough. (and he would have sold us to that sockless villa twat if he could have done).

Add to this that he bought us with the sole purpose of currying favour with a despicable, despotic and oppressive regime and to milk our brand for the benefit of his own businesses. There was never any interest in the club, fans or history, and as soon as he realised the club was of no use to him he turned his back on it. 

He milked the club as best he could, for as long as he could and would have gone further had he been able to. He would have had no qualms about demolishing the ground and selling the land to claw back his cash if he’d been able to. 

Good riddance to him.