Lai gets a lot of stick, but I don't think he has done a lot wrong over the years. That is not to say decisions have worked out well, but I can see why he (or his men) have made many decisions at the point he has made them. It is not as easy as just try harder. If it was, every club could be progressing but the nature of a league dictates that for some clubs to progress, some must regress.
It may be that Lai thinks he has tried switching and swapping managers and that hasn't worked, so he is just going to let this play out a little longer and have faith in a process.
When things are going badly, he is a very easy target.
I’m in sympathy with a lot of this. For what my two-pennorth is worth I think Lai has been naive and unlucky on two counts.
First, he bought from Jeremy Peace. From the moment JP decided to get rid of the club, it’s been on the skids. I think he wanted to preserve the club’s status as a EPL team without putting in the investment needed to keep it developing and competitive. So by the time Lai bought, the damage had already been done. The investment and know how needed to retrieve the situation re scouting, player recruitment, sport science, medical personnel and facilities, not to mention the effective management of the whole system, was absent.
Second, Lai paid over the odds at, reportedly, £150m. This falls at Lai’s door, caveat emptor and all that, but shows what seems to be a worrying naivety on his part. It’s possible, of course that Lai never intended this as a business venture, but as a way of staying onside with the Chinese powers that be, who, at the time we’re encouraging the buying up of football clubs in the top leagues. If that was the case, he is doubly unlucky, as no sooner had he got his proxy’s feet under the boardroom table than the Chinese government did a complete volte-face and stopped money leaving the country. This has left Lai trying to manage his asset at a distance of 10,000 miles, using people he hardly knows in an industry he, quite possibly, doesn’t really understand, with no likelihood of being in a position to provide any financial assistance. His asset is worth very little now compared to what he paid for it. To boost its value we have to return to the EPL. Every passing week that seems more and more remote.
