Kinnear interested in takeover of struggling Luton

JOE KINNEAR has declared an interest in taking over League One strugglers Luton Town.

The former Wimbledon manager has told his representatives to arrange a meeting with the club’s administrators P&A Partnerships with a view to lodging an official bid.

The Hatters were put up for sale last week by their owner David Pinkney as they struggled to cope with mountainous debts and being charged by the FA with making illegal transfer payments.

Luton have already been deducted 10 points by the FA and currently prop up League One, but that is apparently not enough to deter Kinnear, who had a successful spell in charge of the club before he was sacked in controversial circumstances in 2003.

Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle will announce his preferred bidder by December 22 and Kinnear — who is believed to be the front-man for a larger consortium of businessmen — wants to be considered.

“I’m aware of five or six expressions of interest, but I haven’t pulled it all together yet,” Guilfoyle said. “Joe Kinnear’s people have asked to see me. They’ve said they’ve got something to bring to the party.”

If he is successful in pursuing a takeover, Kinnear would almost certainly want to take over the running of team affairs from current manager Kevin Blackwell. The former Ireland full-back has not worked as a manager since an unhappy stint with Nottingham Forest in 2004.

Birmingham chairman David Gold will consider buying back Carson Yeung’s shares if the prospective takeover by the Hong Kong businessman collapses in the next 48 hours.

Yeung has until Friday to convince the Birmingham board that he come up with the £35million (€49m) needed by the December 20 deadline set by co-owner David Sullivan to become the new owner of Blues.

But Sullivan now believes the bid is “dead in the water” while Gold regards it as an “irritation”.

The duo are pressing ahead on the basis that they expect to still be at the helm for the foreseeable future and will be responsible for the funds new manager Alex McLeish has available to spend during January.

Yeung holds 29.9% of the shares with Sullivan and Gold currently each having a 23.22% stake in City.