He’s definitely saying all the right things. He doesn’t intend to make money, which is just as well as you’ll make naff all in football, let alone at Blackburn Rovers. He wants to “feed his passion” for football and become one of the fans at Ewood. He has already had people eyeing up property in the Blackburn area and intends to make it his second home.

The man appears to really mean business. We’ve seen it all before, going back years there was a Russian chap who’s name I forget, then Dan Williams, then Saurin Shah, but now things are really progressing.

But now, with a memorandum of understanding in place and due diligence seemingly imminent, maybe a takeover could genuinely be on the cards …

I do, however, need to weigh up both sides.

In the event of a takeover, what will happen to our club?

Syed has said he will give Big Sam no trophy targets initially, giving the manager time to build his team with the new funds. But will this be the case if he spends £30million, only for a squad of unfamiliar players to struggle to settle and the side to languish in the bottom half?

Will he keep the board in place? John Williams is a very popular chairman because he is fantastic at his job. He’s kept the club afloat despite its lack of funds, and even boosted attendances with some excellent, cost-effective initiatives making Rovers one of the most financially accessible clubs for fans, not just in the Premier League, but the Football League as well.

Speaking of tickets, will prices increase? I know I said above that he’s said he’s not in it for the money, but if he’s putting all that cash in, maybe he’ll take the misguided view that he can reclaim some of his lost capital with inflated ticket prices? I hope he is sensible enough not to. I’m sure if he keeps the current board in place, they’ll advise him against this.

I’m a little sceptical about the idea of developing strong links with the Far East and India. It will be difficult to market a small club like Rovers over there when everyone will have heard of Manchester United, Chelsea, etc, etc. Although it would be nice if we could develop better links with the Asian population here in Blackburn. There’s an absolutely huge population right there to be tapped into.

That’s enough Devil’s advocate. I like Syed’s plans for “Phase One” of his takeover.

Initial £300million investment will help improve our already good youth setup, clear all debts and bring in players. However, he won’t be going all Sheikh Mansoor and throwing £50million around in an effort to bring in some Galacticos.

The idea is to put £100million into the transfer kitty over five years. That sounds a bit small fry, but, when you think about it, £20million a season could be just what we need.

Just think what £20million could have done to our team this season …

If we could pick up a top striker for £7million and a couple of creative midfield players for £5million(ish) each we’d be laughing this season. Now consider having that money available every season – assuming these players don’t come and go.

At the end of the day, it’s been said many a time, without investment our club is going down. Probably not this season. But we will eventually get left behind in a Premier League dominated by money.

This takeover, on the face of it, seems good for the club, and I, for one, am looking forward to a bit of excitement over the coming weeks.

Regarding any takeover, there was much excitement when Ahasan Ali Syed leaked his takeover bid to the Telegraph, prompting a number of other parties to declare their interest in buying the club.

I fear this saga will continue in this vein for a while, but hope, for the club’s sake, that one of these potential buyers is someone who has the club’s best interests at heart and can come in and secure our long-term Premier League future, and perhaps even turn us back into a top half force.

One thing is certain, any takeover will not be completed before the August 31 transfer deadline. So, were the club to get taken over, nothing would happen until at least January.

There’s no point going on and on about what a takeover means to Rovers. We’ve been there before.

We’re probably okay to stay up this season at least. But, without an injection of funds, the rest of the league will leave us behind and we will almost certainly fall into the lower leagues within about five years. Especially when Sam Allardyce packs it in.

We could have been taken over already. That is if we had had the same greedy outlook as clubs like Pompey, snatching the hand off anyone who purported to be a gazillionaire, but was actually living in a box under Darwen Street Bridge.

The good thing about our club is it is ridiculously well run, and neither the Trustees, nor John Williams, will allow the club to fall into the hands of any idiot intent on running our club into the ground then hopping back over to Saudi to forget the whole episode ever occurred.

Takeover aside, the transfer rumour mill has been in overdrive.

Beattie, Dindane, Benjani, Heskey, the list goes on. We finally secured the season-long loan of Mame Biram Diouf (there’s only twwwwoooooo Dioufs) from Manchester United yesterday.

The Senegalese striker may already count himself favourable with Rovers fans, having scored in his second match against Burnley at Old Trafford last season.

Apart from that, and the fact people tend to rate him pretty highly, I know very little about the guy. However, over on his blog at gamstpedersen.co.uk, Morten tells me:

I have not seen him play so many matches, but I saw him play a few times at Molde last year and a couple of times for Manchester United. He impressed me then and I hope he will continue to impress us here in Blackburn.

So fingers crossed he’ll be a good ‘un. Not another Franco Di Santo.

EDIT: Since writing this morning, Diouf came off the bench to score on his debut in Rovers’ 1-1 friendly draw at SPL side Hearts. So not a bad start really. Ausingly enough, the cross came in from Diouf … the other one.

The hunt goes on for another striker and the club is playing its cards very close to its chest, having upped a bid for an unnamed striker, but giving no clues as to who this might be.

Here’s Mame Biram Diouf in action … Looks a good player to me …

The story was picked up and run by the nationals and it was the first piece of takeover news that seemed genuine for a while.

However, I have it on decent authority that he will not be the man to take over at Rovers.

It turns out the Saurin “doesn’t have two ha’pennys to rub together,” and that the consortium involved with the takeover consists of around 60 different people, many of whom are Shah’s family members.

Contrary to reports in the media, the deal has not reached the due diligence stage – when the club and Shah would exclusively open their books to each other to investigate whether or not the takeover is financially viable – and there are other more likely parties interested in a takeover of Blackburn Rovers plc.

It’s likely that the media broke this story more as a result of Shah, or a member of his consortium, trying to give it national focus, and it did seem a well thought out bid when the Indian link was mentioned.

After the excitement wore off, when you look at this bid, why has no one even heard of Saurin Shah in business circles? Probably because he has no real business connections, achievements or money.

However, apart from one seemingly serious bid – the Daniel Williams consortium – which fell through a while back, there’s been nothing serious.

Last Sunday, the People (I think) reported that a Thai consortium and an Indian made up two separate takeover offers. This was not met with a great deal of expectation. We’ve heard it all before and nothing ever comes of it.

Now though, it would seem, a takeover might be a realistic possibility.

I say might, as while I write this I am currently led in bed, having been to a friend’s house with my finger off the Rovers pulse, only to discover a Times article which seems very serious:

An Indian entrepreneur is close to completing a £25 million takeover of Blackburn Rovers after targeting the Lancashire club on account of the town’s large Asian population.

Blackburn’s board has given Saurin Shah, little known outside his home city of Mumbai, permission to begin the due diligence process after several weeks of secret talks. He hopes to complete the takeover by mid-July and to establish strong links not only with the town’s Indian population but also, more globally, with cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL), of which his uncle, Niranjan, is deputy chairman.

Shah approached brokers in London about buying a Barclays Premier League club in April and quickly settled upon Blackburn after learning that the town has a large Asian population as well as historical links to the textile industry. According to the 2001 Census, 14.3 per cent of Blackburn’s population is of Indian origin, with a further 11.5 per cent of Pakistani origin.

Shah’s vision, through his Qubic Sports investment vehicle, is to create strong links between Blackburn and the IPL, which would allow cross- marketing. India is regarded by many Premier League clubs as an area of huge potential growth and Shah believes that his links with the IPL would leave Blackburn well placed to secure a strong position in that market.

Negotiations are taking place through Rothschild, the investment bank, and Chris Nathaniel, the chief executive of NVA Entertainment. Shah, with Nathaniel, attended Blackburn’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal at Ewood Park last month as a guest and has persuaded the board of his willingness to invest in the playing squad and in the club’s infrastructure.

Blackburn have unofficially been open to offers for the past three years, since the trustees of the late Jack Walker, who bankrolled the club to the Premier League title in 1995, made it clear that they were eager to offload their stake. The money from the Trustees of the Jack Walker 1987 Settlement has all but dried up, which has caused John Williams, the chairman, to search for new investment.

Williams said recently that, for the first time in several years, Blackburn expect to “revert to being a trading club rather than a selling club this summer”, with Sam Allardyce, the manager, being given money to invest in his squad — in part thanks to last season’s success in securing a top-half finish in the Premier League. Under Shah’s ownership, the intention would be for Blackburn to attract far greater commercial revenue in India and beyond, which would give the club the means to ensure that they remain an established and sustainable Premier League side.

Williams told The Times in April that Blackburn had performed a high-wire act for the past ten years, their relatively small match-day revenue prompting a considered strategy of investing heavily in player salaries — their wage bill of £46.1 million in the last financial year represented 90.6 per cent of their £50.9 million turnover — to maintain Premier League status.

Earlier tonight, I received a text from a friend asking if I knew anything about this Indian fella. I replied nonchalantly that no, I did not, and I didn’t think the rumours had anything in them. Now, it seems, there may be.

I won’t know anything until later – which will probably be now as most will read this in the cold light of day – but I’ll be honest, the fact this story appears in the Times, and not a red top, really gives it an added credibility in my view.

It’s also been given a fair amount of space in terms of word count.

I know one particular commenter on here, who also hosts his own blog, has been very vocal in his belief that Rovers desperately need to be taken over, and in many ways I agree with him.

In 10 years time, without investment, Blackburn Rovers will be a lower league club. As the money continues to talk in the Premier League, those who have none will suffer.

Rovers are extremely well run with an excellent chairman, who gave another full and frank interview about the state of the club’s finances in the Lancashire Telegraph for the second year running yesterday, but that is only worth so much in today’s game.

We do need to be taken over, but we must ensure that the right people are chosen. Is Saurin Shah the man for the job? Let’s wait and see …

However, a couple of articles this week have got my juices flowing.

Article one appeared in the Daily Mail, listing the owners of all the Premier League clubs and how much money they have. I’ve stolen their graphic to post below, but technically I’m an employee anyway so I hope they don’t mind…

It shows our gracious benefactors, with Uncle Jack’s money, very high up in football’s rich list, with £590-million to their names. That’s £160-million more than Walkersteel sold for back in 1992.

Now, I know they’re trying to sell up, but until the sale they’re stuck with us. When Jack died he left that money in a trust, with some instructions in place, I’m no financial expert but I believe we get the interest or a percentage thereof, from the money as it sits in the trust.

Apparently, that equates to about £3-million a year at the moment. Hardly enough for Rovers to compete in the Premier League and, despite us being, in my opinion, the best run club in the league, it’s a fact that without significant investment we will get relegated at some point over the next five years, as the big-money men take control more and more every season and we are going to get left behind.

It makes me sick that they can sit in Jack’s box every game and watch us head ever more gloomily towards oblivion. In the grand scheme of things, I believe the trustees are about 19th in the football rich list. And that puts them about 7th in the Premier League rich list, yet we continue to struggle…

Article two, which I’m not quite as bothered by, regards the England goalkeeper situation. Paul Robinson has, without doubt, buried his past demons since he was brought to Ewood by Paul Ince at the start of last season. Big Sam stuck by the Hull-born former Spurs keeper, who made a howler for England and lost all his confidence, which ultimately lost him his place at Tottenham.

I am confident that he is good enough to merit a place in the England squad.

Anyway, Martin Lipton’s blog looks at the contenders for the England number one shirt. They are Robert Green, David James, Joe Hart, Ben Foster and Robbo.

Immediately I say Robert Green, then Robinson. David James is too old, Ben Foster too shit and Joe Hart too inexperienced. Through scoring the contenders in ‘decision-making’, ‘shot-stopping’, ‘kicking’, ‘penalties’ and ‘gaffe-factor’. From that Robbo comes third with a paltry 33 out of 50. Robert Green gets 40, while pensioner David James somehow manages 38. How a 39-year-old keeper can be realistically suggested as an England number one is beyond me!

I’ve always liked John Williams, and everyone else on the Rovers board.

Give us the board of most other football clubs in the Premier League and I’m pretty sure we’d be a struggling lower league side with huge debts to pay off.

Luckily, we’ve got Mr Williams, who makes us one of the best run clubs Premier League.

This slightly worrying, but fantastically frank, interview with the Lancashire Telegraph’s Andy Cryer demonstrates this to the full.

How many other top flight chairmen would come out and tell the fans what’s going on quite as clearly as this?

ANDY CRYER: John, I’d like to talk to you about how you feel Rovers have fared on and off the pitch during the summer.

Let’s start with off the pitch. The club has for some time been at the forefront of affordable football. You reduced season ticket prices again this year. Has it worked?

JOHN WILLIAMS: In a word, yes. Our strategy is clearly based on price/volume.

Season tickets are up from 14,000 to 18,500 (19,000 like for like if you factor in likely half-season ticket sales).

So, we’re talking upwards of 30 per cent. A great result during difficult economic times.

Income will be like for like very similar but in terms of taking back Ewood and the improved atmosphere we’ve got a result.

Now it’s about finding the right balance between home/away match day support using price promotion where appropriate to top up. I think average gates of 25,000 are on the cards.

AC: Turning to matters on the pitch, are you feeling confident for the season ahead?

JW: I think we’ll do well. I recognise we’re in a results business and so far one point from three games is disappointing having played well especially versus Sunderland.

If we continue to perform well and can stay clear of injuries we will have a decent season.

AC: How would you judge Rovers’ performance in the transfer window? Was it a good one?

JW: I believe it has been successful overall but only time will tell.

The fact is that since Sam’s arrival, we’ve had close to 10 in and 10 out.

That is considerable upheaval by any standards and it will certainly take time for things to gel.

There is new blood in all playing departments and a well balanced squad with genuine competition all over the pitch.

We’ve got a great balance of age and experience, got more pacey midfield options, excellent back four options and a potentially exciting strike force.

We’ve been able to do this and balance the books which is essential with no new money coming in from the top.

AC: John, you say balance the books, but most fans see sales exceeding purchases. Can you explain in more detail?

JW: I’ll have a go.

Last season 08/09 we started, as always, with a close to break-even budget (before transfers) based on finishing ninth and a wage bill of circa £44m.

Ninth was two places below the previous season’s finish and £44m a 10per cent increase in wages.

These measures were necessary, we thought, to give the new and relatively inexperienced manager (Paul Ince) a good financial foothold given that there was only a very limited transfer pot, but we didn’t have to sell (so ‘even’ trading was the plan for players and the Bentley and Friedel monies were used to fund incoming transfers).

Prior to 08/09 we had kept a very tight rein on our wage bill, we’ve had to.

In the five years 03/04–07/08 it grew by just 6per cent (CAGR) against a Premier League average close to double that.

At the end of the season we finished 15th (not beating West Brom cost us £1.5m but we couldn’t complain, Sam had done a great job).

Wages had increased to £46m plus, this mainly due to the unbudgeted arrivals of Dioufy, Gael Givet and new football management.

There was also a drop in TV games against budget and overall a combined circa £7.5m loss against plan.

This is the gap that had to be plugged from the Santa Cruz deal.

Incidentally the guaranteed money in this deal is £15m; other figures quoted include contingency payments.

For years we have stretched ourselves budgeting a league finish above that suggested by the wage bill.

You know I’m a great believer in the parity between club wage bills and league position.

This year we took a more pragmatic approach to our mantra of break-even, a 13th place finish would support circa £41m annual wage bill (which we believe will be the 13th highest) and therefore we needed to get £5m off the wages – a figure which has been bandied about for some time.

We have failed to do this. We felt in conjunction with Sam that to remain competitive we needed to follow the one in, one out plan.

And not surprisingly wages are running very similar year on year.

So we have filled the resulting £5m hole with the difference in transfer fees between Stephen and Pascal.

In summary, the maths works as follows: Money in from transfers £26m, money out including agents fees, levies etc. £13.5m, headcount like for like and wages like for like.

Where has the 12.5m gone? £7.5m has gone to last year’s P&L as explained (wages, TV games and league finish) and £5m to support this season’s wage bill.

I suppose the most sobering thing about this is that even if we stretch ourselves to achieve break-even at operating level that still leaves nothing for player acquisition. So trading is the name of the game.

I’m not entirely comfortable about funding wages from transfer fees but developing players, buying low and selling high has, by necessity, become part of our business.

AC: How long is this level of wage bill sustainable?

JW: With wage bills rising all around us it has to be sustainable if we are to remain competitive.

The problem is that yesterday’s £20k per week is today’s £30k per week. It is never ending.

You can be sure that when our big players move on they almost without exception get bigger wages.

The fact is in comparative terms we are sliding down the wages league despite our too-high spend.

The good news is that next year sees the start of a new TV cycle which we hope will increase turnover to help sustain wages at their current level.

That will mean we can return to the status of a trading rather than selling club.

But it is always going to be a stretch. We know it’s really a turnover problem, if wages were at what most observers deem to be an appropriate level of turnover we would need to add another £20m to the top line.

To put that into perspective, this year’s total ticket revenue (season ticket sales and match day home & away sales) is £7m.

The fact is that every available penny goes on football.

We have lots of calls on our cash, running a 65 acre estate over 3 sites is in itself expensive, but football comes first. All this having been said I still want wages to come down and will work with Sam to exploit every opportunity that presents itself.

AC: There is a lot of talk about debt in the PL, are you comfortable with Rovers debt levels?

JW: I wouldn’t say comfortable, but it is manageable and there is nothing wrong with debt as a source of funding.

We are fortunate to have an excellent working relationship with our bank which has been built up independent of our owners over a number of years.

I believe they trust us to make responsible decisions.

They have not asked for debt reduction despite the credit crunch and we have certainly not offered it.

We are pushing our overdraft levels to the limit because we are trying to win football matches.

Of course in the medium to long term debt reduction would be desirable, perhaps even sensible, but this is not currently on the agenda.

AC: Any news on the sale?

JW: Nothing concrete, but everyone knows suitable new ownership with new money coming into the club would be the answer.

Work in progress I’m afraid is all I can report.

AC: Will the trust provide new funding in the meantime?

JW: Unlikely, but never say never. In fairness to them and contrary to some uninformed opinion, they are not taking money out either.

There is an agreement to repay a small fixed-term loan but they have agreed to fund an important strategic land acquisition for us.

Our relationship with the trustees remains good. To be fair, they have never interfered, they know the lack of funding is a source of frustration for the board but we just have to get on with it.

I do get depressed at times when I see the spending power of the clubs with big fan bases and / or wealthy owners putting in money.

But they’re not better than us, they don’t work any harder, they just have more money.

Many of them I know look with envy at our achievements on and off the field over recent years.

And they certainly don’t have a greater ambition than us.

Indeed my greatest fear is not that we haven’t stretched ourselves enough, it’s that we have stretched ourselves too far.

Some of our fans I know for sure feel the same frustrations, but lack of finance is nothing to be ashamed of.

We should in fact be proud to be supporting a big club in a small town.

We deserve to be in this league, it’s no fluke.

AC: John, have you got a prediction for the season?

JW: To aim high without risking the financial health of the club, but not to be too disappointed if we don’t make it.

We’ve got an excellent squad in my opinion, easily capable of mid-table and I would dearly love to win the FA Cup.

We are starting our longest stay in the top flight since 1936, not too bad for the town club in the land of the giants.

AC: And finally John, are you still in favour of the transfer window system?

JW: Yes. I would do away with January altogether and close the summer window before the first fixture, but it’s difficult to harmonize across Europe though.