Birmingham City dealt off-the-field blow ahead of their Championship return against Blackpool

New boss John Eustace guided the Blues to 14th place in the Championship before the second tier temporarily halted for a month – only three points adrift of the play-offs.

It’s a big improvement from last season, when the St Andrew’s outfit struggled under the management of Lee Bowyer, finishing 20th on 47 points.

But while things are much better on the pitch, supporters were recently dealt a major blow when news broke of a prospective takeover falling through.

Local businessman Paul Richardson had been in talks to buy the club alongside former Barcelona striker Maxi Lopez.

However, after months of negotiations, Richardson confirmed last week that they would be pulling out of the deal.

Richardson and Lopez’s company, Maxco Capital, had previously been offered exclusivity to get the takeover done, but the fashion businessman has since revealed the deal on the table was unworkable.

In an official statement, Birmingham have since revealed other interested parties have approached the club over a proposed takeover.

Asked if they were the only potential owners, Richardson told talkSPORT: “I think so, I don’t think there’s anyone else mad enough.

“Fair play if there is but I think we’ve gone further than anyone else, the deal was on the table, it was there to be done. We haven’t tried to adjust the current deal, it was only if it was subject to certain things happening.”

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

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

Birmingham will be hoping the setback doesn’t have a negative impact on their on-field performance when they make the trip to Bloomfield Road this weekend.

Eustace’s men will be cheered on by a big away following on the Fylde coast after selling out their allocation of 3,469 tickets.

The Blues will hope to have loanees Hannibal Mejbri and Krystian Bielik available following their return from the World Cup.

Mejbri played in one of Tunisia’s three group matches in Qatar while Bielik reached the last 16 with Poland.

“Krystian is still not back yet, he will be coming in on Wednesday,” Eustace said earlier this week.

“Hannibal came in on Tuesday, so we will have to assess where they are.

“Obviously they have been training and playing, which is great but again it would have taken a lot out of the boys. We will have to look at them on Thursday to see if they will be available on Saturday.

“We will be open minded if they need a break, we have got to assess their fitness.

“The lads who have been here the last two or three weeks have been working exceptionally hard.

“The most important thing for me is we get as many players back in the group who are fit and ready to go.”