Fletcher Confident Over Take-Over

With Iain Dowie concerned that he could miss out on players and City supporters delaying buying season tickets to see if the deal materialises, Fletcher said to the CT: "This is obviously a highly confidental stage of negotiations, but all we can say is 'so far so good'. "We have always said that we will know in May/June and I am very hopeful that we will be able to conclude this transaction in that time frame.

The Due Dilligence that has to be done by the American investors is going well. All four of them are over next week and will probably attend our end of season dinner. "What we have said and what our American colleagues have said is that nobody is trying to do a quick fix. This is not about trying to scramble a few quid together to buy a player. It's about a long term answer to our short term problems.

"Nobody will be rushing into anything. We have a very eager amd ambitious manager wanting our total support which we will give him,but there are processes that we have to go through. "I'm extremely confident that it is going in the right direction but there is a wonderful expression about the fat lady sings and sadly that is the world we live in. The football business can be very frustrating - the one thing yo can plan for with total confidence is that nothng goes according to plan. "