Blackburn Rovers takeover talks progressing
Blackburn Rovers have revealed that they have held talks with Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed's company Western Gulf Advisory regarding a possible takeover of the club.
The 36-year-old said yesterday that he was keen to buy the club and if he is successful could provide manager Sam Allardyce with a whopping £100m to strengthen the squad.
Blackburn officials said that talks were “ongoing” after Syed said that he wanted to complete a deal to buy the club within the next two weeks. However, the club would not shed any further light on the discussions other than to say they had held a "cordial and productive meeting" with the businessman.
Bahrain-based Syed is believed to be ready to spend around £300m on buying the club, cancelling their debt and providing Allardyce with funds for new players. He said that he is not buying the club to make money from it, but rather to feed a “passion” for the sport.
Time for new faces
Syed is hoping to tie up a deal for the club quickly so Allardyce has time to bring in new players before the transfer window closes at the end of the month. He told reporters that: "Between £80 and £100m is what I'd be allocating for players, but I'm not saying that there is not talent in the team. The talent is already very good. Right now Big Sam (Allardyce) has done a fantastic job with very limited resources. If I can give him some good resources I'm pretty confident he could work wonders."
Syed added that he would not set overly ambitious targets for the team and would be keen to give Blackburn’s 31,000-capacity Ewood Park home a revamp.
The club is presently being run by trustees of the estate of the late Jack Walker, who bankrolled the club to the English Premier League title under Kenny Dalgleish in 1995. Big-money signings Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton fired Blackburn to glory, but apart from a League Cup win in 2002 they have since struggled to compete for major honours.
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