While West Bromwich Albion are hoping to conclude a couple of loan deals before the transfer window period ends at the beginning of September, away from the football pitch the club are being weighed down by different kinds of loans, and a financial insecurity which has caused great concern amongst the fanbase.

There's the MSD loan, taken out to fill the parachute payment void and secured against the club's assets. That totals £20m borrowed and the interest that is accruing on top. West Bromwich Albion Group, to where the loan has been fully drawn down, has four years to pay that debt off.

There's the Wisdom Smart loan, the money taken out of the club's coffers by Guochuan Lai to aid his faltering company affected by the pandemic. That was £4.95m with a fixed interest sum of £50,000, but that interest has accumulated after Lai missed two self-imposed deadlines and is no closer to being returned.

There's the Jeremy Peace loan, although that is being investigated still so we'll leave that where it is, for now.

Then there's the lesser known Warmfront Holdings loan. This is a different type of loan in that it doesn't particularly concern West Bromwich Albion as a football club. They're not out of pocket from it, nor are they the beneficiaries of it. The £2m loan, dated as September 2021, was borrowed by Lai from Warmfront Holdings and, in doing so, secured 2.35% of his shares in Albion against that loan through West Bromwich Albion Holdings.

READ: West Brom player ratings v Swansea as Ajayi excels in nervy win

READ: West Brom injury update after Brandon Thomas-Asante left in 'too much pain'

That £2m loan was agreed with a 5% monthly interest rate from June 2022. At any rate, as it was stated in the Holdings accounts earlier this year, Warmfront 'will not take any action to seek or enforce any or all sums of money until at least 8 February 2024."

It's understood that while the interest rate will continue to pile up in the period of time that it isn't repaid, the 2.35% is only secured against the original £2m sum borrowed by Lai through Holdings. What happens, then if - and, likely, when - that money is returned to Warmfront? Then they'll conceivably be able to claim 2.35% of Holdings - which in turn owns nearly 88% of Group, which covers the football club among other things.

Warmfront, though, would be a minority shareholder, of which the stake in the club would be negligible, but it wouldn't be a particularly ideal scenario for Albion, who wait for the day when Lai is bought out and a new, long overdue, era for the club can commence.

Warmfront, which is a 'domestic energy assessor', is a company based in Brierly Hill and is owned by Alex Hearn, who on the company's website is described as a 'serial entrepreneur, with business interests in professional football, leisure and tourism and overseas property developments'.