More questions than answers

Leicester City's takeover yesterday by a Thai-led consortium was called a "special day" by chairman Milan Mandaric.

However, as I said earlier this week, the devil is in the detail. The problem is there isn't, as yet, much detail.

We know that the consortium is headed by 25-year-old Thai businessman Aiyawatt Raksriaksorn (pictured centre), whose nickname is Top and who is being bankrolled by his multi-millionaire father Vichai (pictured right), owner of Thailand duty-free business King Power, City's shirt sponsors. Top has taken a 60 per cent stake. Mandaric is another consortium member and there is an unnamed third Asian business person. However, it is not yet known how much of a stake these two will each have.

At yesterday afternoon's press conference Mandaric refused to name this third person. He also would not put a value on the deal, despite reports saying it was worth £39 million (a club statement said the new consortium would continue to underwrite the club's £26 million debt).

When I spoke to Mandaric later it emerged that the third business person, who he said runs a "powerful" business, had not yet been signed up. He was also unsure when this would happen, only saying it would be by the end of the year.

So at the moment the owner of the club is a young man who, presumably, has access to some of his father's estimated £113 million wealth. The question has to be how much more financial fire-power does this give the club? Given that Mandaric, thought to be worth £60 million, has said he'll leave the club in two years, he is unlikely to want to pump any more money in.

The key will be how much the unnamed potential investor can bring to the club. Mandaric seems to suggest they have a similar amount of wealth to the Raksriaksorns. This would then give the club about £200 million worth of backing.

With experts saying it could cost at least £20 million to get City into and then keep them in the Premier League, it seems reasonable the new owners would be prepared to part with a tenth of their wealth to achieve this.

Whether or not they'll want a return on that investment remains to be seen.