'No is mad enough to buy Birmingham' says Richardson, who would welcome new deal

Richardson previously appeared confident about purchasing his boyhood club along with former Barcelona striker-turned businessman, Maxi Lopez.

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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, and the fashion businessman told talkSPORT why it didn't come to fruition.

Asked if they were the only potential owners, Richardson said: "I think so, I don't think there's anyone else mad enough.

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"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 was then asked by former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan if they had inherited the framework of former prospective owner Laurence Bassini.

He said: "We did, it wouldn't have been the deal I would have walked into myself as a businessman, but we were given no choice, if you want it this is what it is and that's what we walked into.

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"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."

Richardson says he's a lifelong Birmingham fan, and despite last week's announcement that they would be walking away, he couldn't say no to the Blues on new terms.

"We'd welcome the idea, we put in a reasonable deal, we thought," he began

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"The club's in my heart and I'm completely gutted that we couldn't do it when we got so far.

"I'm not a guy to give up, if the right opportunity comes up we'd still be around, we just couldn't go any further with the current agreement we'd got, it couldn't meander on, you either have to agree something or not and we didn't, we couldn't agree with what we had in front of us at that time.

"I love the club and the fans and people that work there, they're as loyal as anyone I've ever known and I felt that, so if we can do something anyway or with anyone we'll do what we can, we've put our heart and soul into this the last few months and it's tiring.

He added about the club's current situation: "The ground and a percentage is owned by two entities on one side and they're not UK-based, and then on the other side 70-odd per cent is owned by the Hong Kong stock exchange and it takes two years to get it off that.

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"I know our intentions were good and honest and we got further than anyone else, and if we can do it, we'll do it."