Businessman confirms Blackburn takeover talks - Sport - Evening Standard
       

Businessman confirms Blackburn takeover talks

America-based businessman Daniel Williams has no plans to shake up Blackburn should his consortium take control at Ewood Park.

The 30-year-old from Lytham St Annes, a boyhood Rovers fan, has confirmed his group are in the early stages of talks with the club ahead of a possible £50million bid.

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Blackburn boss Mark Hughes will be hoping that a takeover will lead to an injection of transfer cash to finance moves for players of the calibre of Rovers striker Benni McCarthy

Williams is adamant he is serious about trying to buy out the Walker Trustees, who currently own 99.8 per cent of the club.

He is impressed with the staff already operating the Blackburn brand.

Williams told the Lancashire Telegraph: "The people who are already running Blackburn seem to be doing a damn good job of it.

"The notion that we would come into the club with no other football experience other than being fans and be chairman, chief executive officer and vice chairman is nonsensical.

"We would absolutely defer to those people who have been doing a great job for a while now.

"If this goes further down the line then we probably wouldn't make any major changes, I don't think."

Williams is adamant there is a long way to go in any negotiations and that if a bid was to be made it would take at least three weeks.

Part of the package would include substantial funds for manager Mark Hughes.

Williams said: "If we bought the club then we wouldn't be putting (Roman) Abramovich money into it, but we would make funds available.

"The way you make a club valuable is by getting it in the top seven and Europe every year.

"The one thing I think it's important to stress is there would be no debt going on the club as part of this deal.

"I will be putting a significant amount of money into funding it, but it won't be the whole £50 million.

"The institutions we have who are interested in doing this deal are very, very large investment institutions.

"You don't make an investment in a Premiership club without being willing to dig into your pockets and make money available to ensure the club does well."

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