City: and then there was Ridsdale

The club has announced today that former Leeds and Barnsley Chairman Peter Ridsdale is spending 3 months as a consultant on future funding and structural options, with a view to a longer-term relationship with the club. He had already been an adviser on the stadium project.

Mr Ridsdale was with Barnsley till December. The new Barnsley Chairman is quoted as saying that cash was needed, and Ridsdale did not want to be in a situation where he owned less than 50% of the shares. That will sound a little bit familiar to City fans.

Mr Ridsdale's business background is in retail, which may be helpful to the stadium project. There is of course a lot of material publicly available on the web about his previous football engagements with Leeds and Barnsley.

I hope all this means progress. Meanwhile, it's two weeks since I wrote to the club. I did not expect a formal reply just yet, but I do expect one within four weeks.