[tex]

Come back Jeremy all is forgiven. At least he had a plan and stuck to it whether you liked the plan is a personal decision.

Words I did not think I would hear ever. How bad are things now

[Hull Baggie]

I think we are more likely to end up as a Hull City than a Portsmouth, Sunderland, Blackburn etc. A club with a disinterested owner who has put the club up for sale, refuses to put any money into the club, losing supporters season upon season.

I hope Lai can sell the club. I don't care if the owner doesn't pump endless millions into the club (not sure I'd want them to). What I would like though is an owner who is interested, has a long term (5+ years) plan for the club and employs the people to realise that plan, and a manager that can get us playing entertaining football.

I know Allardyce isn't going to have us playing entertaining football and that's not what we need in our current situation, staying in the Pl is the most important thing for the club and if Allardyce can achieve that then hopefully that will lead to Lai selling the club and then just maybe we'll get the kind of owner we all want.

[overseas baggie]

Come back Jeremy all is forgiven. At least he had a plan and stuck to it whether you liked the plan is a personal decision.

I’d love to see him lead a consortium to buy from Lai.  He could put in a fraction of what he sold for.  He could even fund that out of the circa £80m CGT he saved on the sale when he moved to Jersey. 

If he was able to pull together the right sort of consortium, one which could not only buy from Lai but inject some extra funding (remember that we are constrained by FFP regulations regardless of how wealthy the next owner is), then we’d be in a pretty decent place.   

Love him or hate him, he knows how to run a football club.  If he’d sold to a bad owner, rather than merely to a disinterested one who cannot provide financial help, then one can only speculate where we might be right now.  It could be a lot worse. 

[johnny Cash]

It seems to me that we dont need a new owner as such, we need a new visionary.  It doesn't really matter in what senior position, be it owner, ceo or technical director.

Obviously an owner would be better, because they'd have a stronger tie to the club than an employee, but it may be that you've got a much big pool in the labour market. Albeit it will still be limited as its such a unique role, I also expect any advertised position would get a lot applications from charlatans.

We got lucky with Ashworth, he was a lower league academy man but clearly more capable than anyone probably knew when he joined. He learnt and grew in to the role. I dont know what he is paid, but I would seriously go an offer him a £5m 10 year deal and give him operational control over managemnt, recruitment and the academy. 

If I were a prospective buyer / head of a consortium, he is the one man I would  want him in my group. I'd give him a percentage of the club to get him on board.

[ex coseley kid]

Come back Jeremy all is forgiven. At least he had a plan and stuck to it whether you liked the plan is a personal decision.

I feel the same.

[skyclad99]

Come back Jeremy all is forgiven. At least he had a plan and stuck to it whether you liked the plan is a personal decision.

Oh he had a plan alright, and he chucked us right under the bus.

I never want that man near our club again ......regardless.

[AlbionFan]

I feel the same.

Is must be a generation thing as, so do I 

[iwastherein68]

Is must be a generation thing as, so do I 

Me too

[skyclad99]

Is must be a generation thing as, so do I 

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask........

Peace is the reason why we are where we are now, and some want more apparently. I am seriously lost for words.

[baggiejohn]

I don’t believe it was “well over £200m”.  Somewhere in the £175-200m range.

Lai was openly part of a consortium, not the sole owner, but he was the confirmed front person of the consortium so is named as the controller.

I don't believe it was "well over £200 million" either.

I understand Palm contributed £30 million, around 18% of the total to the consortium. (From the Palm website).

On that basis, that makes the bid valued at around £166 million.

Haven't got a clue what contribution Lai made, or where he got the cash from, although CL thinks he used a loan.

[skyclad99]

Why don't we ask S4A if they want Jezza back?

I think I might know the answer, and I concur.

[WorcsWBA]

Peace is the reason why we are where we are now, and some want more apparently. I am seriously lost for words.

Indeed. My view is that he was always in it for himself, yet some prefer to see him through rose-tinted specs as some kind of a benefactor to the club when, as I understand it, he actually never put any of his own money into it. As soon as the time suoted him, he rode off into the sunset and left us completely and utterly in the ****.

Some will no doubt say that there's nothing wrong with already rich people making even more lashings of money - I think I'll stick with my own moral compass.

[skyclad99]

Is this the bloke some of you want back?

https://www.westbromnews.co.uk/2021/01/14/view-jeremy-peace-continues...

Shakes head in disbelief

[tommcneill]

Why don't we ask S4A if they want Jezza back?

I think I might know the answer, and I concur.

Id take JP over the guy we have now no problem.

S4A dont have an exclusive say on who should and shouldnt be owning the club.

They could, by buying the club outright

[johnny Cash]

I don't believe it was "well over £200 million" either.

I understand Palm contributed £30 million, around 18% of the total to the consortium. (From the Palm website).

On that basis, that makes the bid valued at around £166 million.

Haven't got a clue what contribution Lai made, or where he got the cash from, although CL thinks he used a loan.

This is closer to what I had been lead to believe.

I always thought reports suggest peace received around £175m for his 88%, which values the entire club at roughly £200m.

[timdon]

Id take JP over the guy we have now no problem.

S4A dont have an exclusive say on who should and shouldnt be owning the club.

They could, by buying the club outright

That's a very low bar you've set there. There must be better by far than these two.

[johnny Cash]

Indeed. My view is that he was always in it for himself, yet some prefer to see him through rose-tinted specs as some kind of a benefactor to the club when, as I understand it, he actually never put any of his own money into it. As soon as the time suoted him, he rode off into the sunset and left us completely and utterly in the ****

Some will no doubt say that there's nothing wrong with already rich people making even more lashings of money - I think I'll stick with my own moral compass.

I dont see why him being in it for himself is necessarily a bad thing when his interests and the Albion doing well were mutually aligned.

Nobody else was banging on the door to buy us as far as I know when he bought it the way he did.

[tommcneill]

That's a very low bar you've set there. There must be better by far than these two.

Of course there is...

But the debate above has been about JP and Lai

Out of the 2 there is no question who was the better chairman

[Albion79]

I may be looking at this naively but not sure what Peace did wrong selling to Lai?

As a fan i think Peace made a number of mistakes from not backing managers to some iffy managerial appointments but not sure the sale to Lai was one of them.

At the time we were an established premier league club, we had a manager in charge in Pulis who although played shocking football at that time was as safe a bet as there was to guarentee premier league football.

He sold to a consortium who as far as i am aware brought us outright for between £170m - £200m, they didnt borrow against the club or take loans out to complete the deal, they paid the money no problem and at a time when the chinese, a huge superpower in the world were trying to get into football.

At that point of sale Peace was rumoured to be an advisor i think, but Lai was the decision maker.

He came in and said business as normal, they didnt say we would go crazy, but what they did do inline with the fact we were an established premier league club was broke our transfer record when signing Burke and also for the first time in our history starting paying players over £100k a week (Krychowiak, Sturridge) and many of us said it was the best squad in our lifetime, me included.

He appointed a supposed steady eddie in John Williams to run things, he then replaced Pulis with a Pardew who again had relative success at clubs similar to us like West Ham, Newcastle and Palace, it wasnt some random unknown mate of mate from China, of course there was probably better options than Pardew but he was an experienced mananger.

However it turned out, it didnt work out with Pardew, the team under performed and John Williams was a disaster, but that is all after Peace left, hindsight is a wonderful thing but all those things listed above seemed pretty safe sensible decisions.

Since then we got relegated, cut our cloth and got promoted again, as i have said i would prefer a long term plan but Lai wants out but not sure three years later Peace can be blamed for that.

Peace is a businessman, if somebody offered me the chance to put little money into a business and make £170m profit, i would say yes! As fans we didnt really suffer for him to be a success, i know Paul Thompson did great things and Peace carried it on, under him we were promoted to the top flight for the first time in my 30 years of going, we became an established topflight club and built a top academy, new training ground and have very nice facilities.

Things could of been different, on the pitch maybe we should of had more ambitious managers who targeted cups, some wanted the Halford extended, i have no doubt there are probably some staff who dont speak highly of him, all things that happen under multi million pound businesses.

There are probably people on here who know more than me but as an everyday fan, i am not sure Peace did much wrong selling to Lai, the appointments after that were where it went wrong but they were all pretty experienced established appointments that just didnt work out.

[skyclad99]

I dont see why him being in it for himself is necessarily a bad thing when his interests and the Albion doing well were mutually aligned.

Nobody else was banging on the door to buy us as far as I know when he bought it the way he did.

He would not have let them JC, Peace knew exactly what he was doing when he was acquiring the shares. Had the club been put up for sale at the time [about 2008] then there may have been interest, we will never know.

I am not sure his interests and the Albion's interests were ever mutually aligned. He was always in it for himself and really did not care what happened to the club.

If you think about it, had Peace not have sold out then I think that we would probably be in exactly the same position as we are now under Lai. We would still be running on a shoestring and not 'looking forward' with a clear strategy for progression as a club. Instead of wanting Lai out we would be posting about how tight Peace is and how he is holding us back [and wanting him to sell the club ironically].

However, as another poster said, my morale compass will not allow me to agree or condone with anything Peace did when he sold the club to Lai. You will never see a more blatant lack of integrity.   

[skyclad99]

Here are some words from Chairman Peace;


Outgoing Chairman Jeremy Peace commented: “I believe this deal will enable Albion to build on the strong, sustainable foundations that have been the cornerstone of the Club’s progress.

“I have been Chairman for 14 years and I am obviously pleased that in that time we have become an established top flight club. Now, having spent time with Guochuan, I believe he is the right man to take Albion forward.

“His genuine passion for the game, proven track record with Palm and the China opportunity he brings to Albion will hopefully play a key role in helping the Club develop still further in this increasingly global age.



That went well didnt it.......

[leeiswba]

I’ve only been a fan for about 20-25 years and the best we have been in that period (2010-2013) is due to the structure put in place by Peace so I struggle to feel the same hate towards him the way others do.

Also it’s all well and good saying what everyone should do with their businesses/money, I’d love to see what these same people would do if it was their business/money.

[leeiswba]

Here are some words from Chairman Peace;


Outgoing Chairman Jeremy Peace commented: “I believe this deal will enable Albion to build on the strong, sustainable foundations that have been the cornerstone of the Club’s progress.

“I have been Chairman for 14 years and I am obviously pleased that in that time we have become an established top flight club. Now, having spent time with Guochuan, I believe he is the right man to take Albion forward.

“His genuine passion for the game, proven track record with Palm and the China opportunity he brings to Albion will hopefully play a key role in helping the Club develop still further in this increasingly global age.



That went well didnt it.......

He was wrong but we only know in hindsight, unless you are saying he sold it to Lai on purpose to do us over which I can’t see.

Or are you saying he should have maybe taken £50m less money and sold to someone else? Like I said I my post before it’s easy to tell everyone else what to do with their money.

[gazberg]

I dont see why him being in it for himself is necessarily a bad thing when his interests and the Albion doing well were mutually aligned.

Nobody else was banging on the door to buy us as far as I know when he bought it the way he did.

TBF sure it was reported that other parties who wanted to give Peace less and invest more into club existed but he turned those down for the party that would pay him more directly.

Make no mistake Peace selling to Lai was purely for his own gain, not an interest in the clubs future. He found the mug he never thought he would find and gobbled him up.

[baggiejohn]

It seems to me that we dont need a new owner as such, we need a new visionary.  It doesn't really matter in what senior position, be it owner, ceo or technical director.

Obviously an owner would be better, because they'd have a stronger tie to the club than an employee, but it may be that you've got a much big pool in the labour market. Albeit it will still be limited as its such a unique role, I also expect any advertised position would get a lot applications from charlatans.

We got lucky with Ashworth, he was a lower league academy man but clearly more capable than anyone probably knew when he joined. He learnt and grew in to the role. I dont know what he is paid, but I would seriously go an offer him a £5m 10 year deal and give him operational control over managemnt, recruitment and the academy. 

If I were a prospective buyer / head of a consortium, he is the one man I would  want him in my group. I'd give him a percentage of the club to get him on board.

Agree 100%. & that's the way I'd go, I'd much prefer us to play the long game.

The problem is, we don't know what pressure Lai is under in China, I'd hazard a guess that he's under some pressure to get rid.