West Bromwich Albion have been had a number of concerns to attend to over the last week with a virus outbreak in the camp, and now an unexpected guest has made an appearance at The Hawthorns.

What's the word?

West Brom journalist, Joseph Masi, dropped a bombshell yesterday afternoon on Twitter after revealing that the club's controlling shareholder, Lai Guochuan, has made his first visit to the club for three years.

Masi put out a string of tweets, letting fans know what was happening;

"It is understood this is the first step towards Lai reintegrating himself back into the club. He had positive talks today with Ismael about the future and the upcoming January transfer window... #wba"

He then added;

"It's believed Lai still wants to sell Albion. But he accepts a sale is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Therefore he wants to give his investment some TLC to help them back to the Premier League... #wba"

The 47-year-old businessman, who bought the club in 2016 for £200m, has gone to extreme lengths to make this visit, spending ten days in quarantine after flying to England, and when he does make the flight home to Guangzhou he will undergo a strict 28-day quarantine process, so the visit was clearly monumental for Lai.

Fans elated

Fans of West Bromwich Albion have always been vocal about their disappointment and anger towards Lai and his handling of the club, with many of them responding to Masi's tweets about the visit to express their opinion;

One fan tweeted in response to Masi; "C'mon Joe this is absolute garbage... he's doing all these fake meet & greets to smoke screen fans into believing he cares about our club. Attendances & interest is down currently. He's a desperate man."

Another fumed; "We want him gone too, to be honest. To sell we need to be in Premier League but he’s hoping we can go up without spending anything. Not happening. Cough up."

Evidently, Baggies fans will be elated if Lai does eventually sell up so this update from Masi should provide them with some encouragement.

Supporters will definitely be expecting Lai to put his hands in his wallet this January as a lack of proper investment has, as a result, seen the club yo-yo-ing between the Championship and Premier League, with the side finding themselves unable to establish themselves in the top flight, facing constant relegation battles.

As a result, it's clear to see that his time in the Midlands has not really been a success.

It will be intriguing to see what Lai's next moves are for the club and whether he has a genuine interest in fixing the issues that West Brom currently face in a tight battle for automatic promotion.

The shareholder can make a real positive impact by signing players in January to help with goal-scoring, where the side is lacking compared to their two title rivals, Fulham and Bournemouth, and managing this problem could substantially increase the chances of promotion for the Baggies.

If he doesn't do that, the discontent towards Lai will only grow deeper while the thought of him finally taking his leave will leave fans beaming with excitement.

In other news: Joseph Masi drops exciting behind the scenes claim