Shilen Patel comments show West Brom aim is to succeed where Guochuan Lai failed: View | OneFootball

West Brom owner Shilen Patel's comments about his ambitions for the club will delight Baggies supporters.

West Bromwich Albion will be hoping to challenge for promotion from the Championship this season.

West Brom suffered heartbreak as they were beaten by Southampton in last season's play-off semi-finals, but they look set to be among the promotion contenders once again this time around.

Despite operating under an EFL-imposed business plan this summer in order to avoid a breach of PSR rules, it was a busy summer for the Baggies with 11 new players arriving at The Hawthorns, and head coach Carlos Corberan has built a squad that should be capable of maintaining a promotion challenge.

In addition to the continued progress on the pitch under Corberan, there has been much more positivity surrounding off-field matters at the club since the £60 million takeover by Shilen Patel in February, which brought former owner Guochuan Lai's disastrous tenure to an end.

In a recent interview, Patel made it clear that his goal is not just to guide Albion back to the Premier League, but to establish the club in the top flight, telling The Telegraph: "It’s certainly changed my life.

"It’s been a dream and a desire for over two decades to be a part of English football. Not just in any way possible, it needed to be the right club at the right time.

"Now I’m here it would mean the world to take this club back to the Premier League. It’s the primary objective we have.

"I just feel like the Premier League is home for this club – but we have to earn it."

Of course, the first objective for the Baggies is to achieve promotion from the Championship, and that will not be easy this season with strong competition from the likes of Leeds United, Burnley, Sheffield United and Sunderland, but if they are able to reach the Premier League, Patel will be hoping to succeed where Lai failed.

Guochuan Lai's West Brom reign proved to be a disaster

Lai bought Albion from Jeremy Peace in 2016 for a reported fee of £200 million, and it was hoped that he could help the club kick on after six consecutive years in the Premier League.

The first year of Lai's ownership was a success, with the Baggies achieving a top-half finish, but it was not long before red flags began to emerge, and the club were relegated to the Championship the following season after a disastrous campaign that saw three different managers - Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew and Darren Moore - take charge of the team.

Albion came close to making an immediate return to the top flight in the 2018-19 season, but they were beaten on penalties by local rivals Aston Villa in the play-off semi-finals under the guidance of caretaker manager Jimmy Shan.

Slaven Bilic was named as the Baggies' new permanent manager in the summer of 2019, and he led the club to automatic promotion in his first year in charge, but he failed to build on that success.

An underwhelming summer transfer window meant that it was always going to be difficult for Albion to stay in the Premier League, and Bilic was sacked in December after his side won just one of their first 13 league games, but despite survival expert Sam Allardyce being appointed as his replacement, it was not enough to prevent relegation.

The Baggies found it tough after their return to the Championship, and Valerien Ismael and Steve Bruce both struggled to inspire a promotion challenge, leading to increasing discontent towards Lai and protests taking place calling for him to sell.

Corberan proved to be Lai's final appointment as Albion owner, and it was arguably his best decision during his time at the club, but he did not provide the Spaniard with the necessary backing in the transfer market, while he also left a legacy of financial issues that Patel is still dealing with today.

Shilen Patel impact at West Brom is already clear

Patel may only have been in charge of the Baggies for eight months, but the positive impact he has made at the club is already evident.

Lai was increasingly absent during the latter stages of his time at The Hawthorns, but Patel frequently attends matches whenever his business commitments allow him to, and Corberan has revealed that he has significantly more communication with the new owner.

"Now with Shilen as an owner I have that contact, that I probably didn't have before with the (previous) owner. Andrew (Nestor) is a sporting director who didn't change any type of communication between any people working here - he added to it as someone who I have a weekly conversation with, normally," Corberan told Birmingham Live.

"We are talking in detail and when they come here I always spend time with them, I like to spend time with the people in charge and they want to spend time with me. We like to spend time talking about the vision and the project and evaluating things we do as a club."

One of the biggest challenges that Patel may face in the next few years is keeping hold of Corberan, and after being linked with Burnley and Leicester City in the summer, he was recently said to be on the radar of Southampton.

However, Corberan played down the speculation about a potential move to St Mary's, stating that he would be "very, very happy" to extend his stay with Albion, and much of the reason for that is likely down to his positive relationship with Patel.

With Patel now at the helm and Corberan continuing to deliver results, it would be no surprise to see the owner achieve his goal of establishing the Baggies in the Premier League over the coming years.