Former England star David Beckham has been linked with a return to the English Premier League by the prospective new owners of Blackburn Rovers.
The Los Angeles Galaxy player who missed the World Cup because of an Achilles heel injury and was subsequently dumped by Italian Fabio Capello as being too old to play for England, is the biggest name to be linked with the Ewood Park outfit.
Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed, whose Bahrain-based consortium Western Gulf Advisory, is closing in on a £300 million purchase of the Blackburn Rovers has promised manager Sam Allardyce £100 million to beef up the squad.
However, the Rovers boss has played down expectations surrounding the potential takeover and insists such a big budget is no guarantee of success.
“I see our prospective new owners linked us with David Beckham this week,” Allardyce wrote in his News of the World column.
“Well that was music to my ears because I have tried to sign him twice in the past - once when I was at Bolton and then later when I managed Newcastle!
“The likes of David Beckham are who Blackburn are going to be linked with if the £300million takeover by Western Gulf Advisory goes through.
“I’ve had everybody on this week asking me how I’m going to spend the £100m that’s supposedly coming my way. But let’s hold on a minute. The news is really exciting but at present there’s only a proposal on the table, nothing is signed or sealed.
“Having said that, you can’t help but get excited at the magnificent opportunity to improve the club. Just so long as any new owner realises spending £100m on players guarantees you nothing.
“Yes, it’s a massive chance to bring back those fantastic days Blackburn enjoyed under Jack Walker and Kenny Dalglish, but look at Manchester City.
“They’ve spent in excess of £300m plus millions more on wages and are not in the Champions League.
“Roman Abramovich has put £750m into Chelsea and they’ve not won the Champions League.
“Aston Villa spent about £80m under Martin O’Neill. They twice finished sixth and he left last week because he felt the investment from his board was drying up!
“To get Blackburn into the top four, it would take more than £100m.”