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A new owner of Aston Villa could emerge ‘within a month’ following a close season of intense behind the scenes negotiations with potential buyers, it was claimed today.

Stockbroker Peter Knowles poured scorn on fears that Randy Lerner’s attempts to sell Villa had been thwarted by the reported price tag of £200m to £250 million.

He said any negotiations over a sale were likely to last at least three months – with professional advisers and legal experts carrying out due diligence checks on prospective owners.

And Mr Knowles said the Villa sale was certain to be undertaken in a highly professional manner – unlike the “off the back of a fag packet” style of jailed Blues owner Carson Yeung.

“I would have thought that something could happen in the next month if there are serious people out there. Villa are a Premier League club, they receive Sky money and they are not heavily geared like Manchester United.

“If people have shown interest then they will have signed memoranda of understanding and Randy Lerner’s advisers Merrill Lynch will have been checking to see if they have got the money. People want to own a football club and they think they have got a lot of money but often they have not.

“I do not think I would be concerned by the price. In any case, these people often do not pay with their own money – they borrow and it is all geared.

“If somebody turns around and says ‘I will pay you this’ for a club, the process would be at least three months. The advisers will want to make half a million out of it.

“Randy Lerner will want his advisers to do things the right way rather than, say, Carson Yeung, off the back of a fag packet. Something is going on in the background – I am sure there are people out there who want to buy Villa.”

Lerner, who bought the club from Doug Ellis for £62.6 million in 2006, has said he wants it to go to a “good custodian” and in May appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch to conduct the sale.





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