Allardyce not counting on funds this summer
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Your support makes all the difference.Blackburn are not expecting the sale of the club to be complete before the end of the transfer window, manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed.
Rovers are in discussions with Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed over a proposed £300million takeover at Ewood Park and yesterday released a statement saying they had held "a cordial and productive meeting" with representatives of the Bahrain-based lawyer's investment firm, Western Gulf Advisory.
Syed wants to complete a buyout of the club within two weeks so as to allow some of the initial £80-100million he has pledged for new players to be spent before the transfer deadline on August 31.
However, Allardyce said today that having spoken with Blackburn chairman John Williams, he does not see a deal being finalised that soon.
"John tells me we can't get the deal done any sooner than maybe even as far as the end of September," Allardyce said.
"This transfer window will be well and truly shut at the end of August, so that will not allow us to do anything between now and then."
Allardyce - who is looking for a new striker to bolster his attacking options - admits the takeover talk is exciting, but stressed that the club's transfer policy would not be changing for the time being.
"If it becomes a reality, that would be obviously very, very exciting, but at the moment it is still in the process of negotiation," he said.
"While in that process, the speculation in the press by the prospective new owner is very exciting for us all, but until it actually goes through, then for myself, the players and every member of staff here, it is about focusing on what we have to do (in their next Barclays Premier League match) against Birmingham City, and what we can do in terms of perhaps securing a striker before the end of the window.
"The chairman says to me it would be almost impossible to think that any of that money might be available before the end of this window.
"So we continue down the same line as we have all summer, and bring in another frontman if we can find him."
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