Staveley insists that she has not given up on the hope of completing a takeover

Amanda Staveley has a few things on the go. At her home and office, around the corner from Hyde Park, she is in the midst of eight deals; a casino in Japan, some real estate in New York. People buzz around her, but this is a hands-on process and she is flitting between meetings, fielding calls. Alexander, her three-year-old son, is here, clutching a model aeroplane, and he wants to play. It does not feel as though Staveley has much time to waste.

In the downstairs sitting room, there is a wide-screen television, a coffee table crammed with family photographs. There is a picture of her standing alongside Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton, sacrilege for a childhood Liverpool supporter, except that PCP Capital