‘Nobody else is crazy enough to buy Birmingham City,’ says Paul Richardson, who admits he was ‘disgusted’ to walk away from negotiations but would ‘welcome’ a new deal

Potential Birmingham City owner Paul Richardson has said “no one else is crazy enough” to buy the club but has kept his door open.

Richardson previously seemed confident about buying his childhood club with former Barcelona striker turned businessman, Maxi Lopez.

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However, after months of negotiations, Richardson confirmed last week that they would walk away from the deal.

Richardson and Lopez’s company Maxco Capital had already been offered the exclusive to complete the takeover, and the fashion businessman explained to talkSPORT why it didn’t happen.

When asked if they were the only potential owners, Richardson said: ‘I think so, I don’t think there’s anyone else crazy enough.

“Fair play if there is any but I think we went further than anyone, the deal was on the table, it was there to be done. We didn’t try to adjust the current deal , it was only if he was subject to certain things.

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan then asked Richardson if they had inherited the former’s frame future owner Laurence Bassini.

He said: ‘We did it, it wouldn’t have been the deal I would have walked into myself as a businessman, but we had no choice, if you want it, that’s what it is and that’s what we got into.

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“One of the biggest issues for us that we didn’t know about was the investigation into the current owners and which is still ongoing, so that’s always been something that we’re a little bit concerned about because the outcome of that is unknown at this time point in time.

“We don’t know what the answer is, it’s in the hands of the EFL.”

Richardson says he has been a lifelong Birmingham fan, and despite announcing last week that they would be moving away, he couldn’t say no to the Blues on new terms.

“We’d love the idea, we made a reasonable deal, we thought,” he began.

“The club is in my heart and I’m completely disgusted that we haven’t been able to make it when we’ve come this far.

“I’m not a guy to give up on, if the right opportunity comes along we’d still be here, we just couldn’t go any further with the current deal we had, it couldn’t meander, you either have to agree on something or not and we didn’t, we couldn’t agree with what we had in front of us at the time.

“I love the club and the fans and the people who work there, they’re as loyal as anyone I’ve ever known and I felt that, so if we can do anything anyway or with anyone, we will do what we can, we’ve put our heart and soul into this last month and it’s tiring.

He added of the club’s current situation: “The land and a percentage is owned by two entities on one side and they’re not based in the UK, then on the other side around 70 per cent is owned by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and it takes two years to get rid of it.

“I know our intentions were good and honest and that we went further than anyone, and if we can do it, we will.”