New Baggies boss: ‘The drinks are on me!’

If West Brom fans were not sure what to make of their club’s takeover by Guochuan Lai, they can rest assured the Chinese entrepreneur is pulling out all the stops to make the right impression at the Hawthorns.

Lai has already promised that, unlike several notable foreign owners in the Premier League, he will leave transfer dealings alone and try to keep the club’s staff as stable as possible.

But perhaps what will be the most pleasant music to Baggies fans’ ears is the promise of free drinks at their opening home game against Everton on August 20 – with Lai promising the rounds will be on him at his first visit to a match as owner.

“The plan is to maintain the current practice and operations,” he said. “And to continue to stability of the management, coaching team and playing squad.

“With the effort of all of us I would hope that we could come in the top half of the division in the near future – I will very much look forward to that.

“I will leave the transfer dealings in the capable hands of our new chairman, John Williams, our head coach Tony Pulis (pictured) and technical director Nick Hammond.

“They will be in charge of the overall planning and decisions, but they will have my support whenever needed.

“I will visit as often as I can to attend the matches and spend as much time as possible with the fans, and we have prepared a scarf for every fan travelling to watch our first away game against Crystal Palace next week.

“I will be at our first home game against Everton, and I will buy everyone at The Hawthorns a drink then.”