Blackburn buyout 'unlikely' before transfer window closes

Blackburn Rovers are not expecting the sale of the club to be complete before the end of the transfer window, manager Sam Allardyce confirmed yesterday.

Rovers are in discussions with the Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed over a proposed £300m takeover at Ewood Park and this week 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 £80m-£100m he has pledged for new players to be spent before the transfer deadline on 31 August.

However, Allardyce said yesterday that, having spoken with the 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.

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.

"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."