Club News

Chairman addresses fans ahead of Hawthorns opener

John Williams' message for fans ahead of Everton fixture

Dear supporters,

I would like to take this opportunity to extend the Club’s best wishes to all of you as we prepare for our first home game of the new Premier League season.

It’s special for me and an honour to be in a position to write these words. I promise you I will do my level best to live up to the responsibility that comes with this office.

It is also a special day for our prospective new owner Guochuan Lai who will be watching his first game at The Hawthorns. 

This great old stadium is one of the traditional homes of English football. The Club have made some eye-catching changes which I hope you will enjoy and I know you will do all you can to show Lai just why The Hawthorns is so special. 

I am sure you will all want to join me in offering the warmest of greetings to him and wish him well in his endeavours to deliver the success he so craves to bring to the Club.

There has been and continues to be a lot of focus on the transfer market and that is only to be expected. Let me firstly assure you the sale process has not hampered our activities. 

That having been said, the market is very difficult. There’s a log-jam; clubs don’t want to part with their players and especially their good players and it is good players we are, of course, trying to bring in. 

In a restricted market, prices are high and we accept that. But some of the prices we are being quoted are quite frankly too high. 

It’s a work in progress and we remain determined to supplement the Club’s already established Premier League squad in order to give Tony more options.

Our players reminded us of their qualities in last week’s win at Selhurst Park which got us off to a great start. The travelling support was phenomenal – a really great effort which contributed to just the start we wanted. I thank everyone who played their part.

Now, if we can beat Everton it will be the perfect opening to what promises to be an exciting but demanding season in which the impact of that kind of devoted and noisy support cannot be underestimated.

John Williams

Chairman