Mandaric sets Foxes takeover date

By Andrew McKenzie

Mandaric left Portsmouth in September last year

Milan Mandaric is hopeful his £25m takeover of Leicester will go through before the weekend.

The former Portsmouth owner has become frustrated by the delay in finalising a deal, but is confident any remaining glitches will soon be ironed out.

"We are close," Mandaric told BBC Sport. "There are a couple of issues that need to be resolved hopefully in the next few days.

"Definitely by the game against Birmingham on Saturday."

Mandaric was expected to have made a formal bid for the club before Christmas after being given permission to look at the club's books in November.

But the period of due diligence brought up issues that have delayed matters.

"It's a frustrating time for me. It's taking so long, much longer than I thought," Mandaric added.

"The explanation from the lawyers is always the same: it's a public company, it takes time to satisfy the code and the panel.

"They are always issues related to commercial or financial deals and some unknown things I need to look over and make a decision on immediately.

At this time I'm not looking for a manager or anything else Milan Mandaric

"If I looked at this as a business we would probably walk away but I'm keen to get back in football.

"Sometimes you have to close your eyes on some of the things because football doesn't always bring the clean-cut situation in a business sense.

"I'd like to get it done one way or the other as this is not what I anticipated.

"It's not at my end. It is something I need to overcome and I wasn't quite aware of. I'm not accusing or pointing the finger at anyone it was just something that was found during investigation.

"The price is not the problem whatsoever. It has been agreed."

Mandaric denied weekend reports he will appoint former Crystal Palace and Charlton manager Iain Dowie when he takes over - saying he has been impressed with current boss Rob Kelly.

He added: "At this time I'm not looking for a manager or anything else. I just want to resolve the ownership of the club and then look at existing structure.

"I'm not committed to Iain Dowie or anyone else at this point.

"Unfortunately I have not been allowed many dealings with the manager (Kelly) but I did have the opportunity to meet with him two or three times.

"He is a good solid young man who is a great coach and apparently gets on well with players and probably gets the best out of them.

"I don't know much about him or his capabilities but so far I'm impressed with him."