Dermot Desmond last night insisted he has no interest in a takeover bid for Manchester United.
Two of Desmond's business associates, JP McManus and John Magnier, recently became the largest individual shareholders in United, increasing their holding from 6.77 per cent to 10.37 per cent through their Cubic Expression Company Limited.
It has long been speculated the group would eventually take over United and install Alex Ferguson as chairman. But millionaire Desmond, who also owns shares in United, maintains he has too much at stake at Parkhead to think about a takeover elsewhere.
Desmond said: "I have no interest in taking over Manchester United. My commitment is to Celtic Football Club. I'm emotionally committed to Celtic Football Club.
"Any interest that my family I have is purely financial in United. Our hearts and our minds rest with Celtic Football Club."
The extent of Leeds' lavish spending under their former chairman Peter Ridsdale became clearer yesterday as his successor picked through the baffling figures of his myopic reign.
Profligacy ranged from colossal compensation packages for dismissed managers to a monthly sum spent on the goldfish in the chairman's office.
Professor John McKenzie, left to pick up the pieces of his predecessor's brazen spending that left Leeds £78 million in debt despite off-loading £52 million worth of players, still claims he is "optimistic" about the club's future though he was quick to warn supporters that recovering from the excesses would take considerable time.
"There's been irresponsibility and indulgent spending here," admitted McKenzie, a professor of economics who assumed the reins at Elland Road on March 31st with Leeds in financial turmoil and still in serious danger of relegation.
McKenzie must take a club that forked out £5.7 million in compensation to its sacked former managers David O'Leary and Terry Venables while still spending £600,000 per annum on a fleet of over 70 company cars - £70,000 on one vehicle alone - back to a firm financial footing. To that end, the new manager Peter Reid has been handed a performance-related, one-year rolling contract, reflecting a much needed, if belated, switch in policy.
Ridsdale's Leeds may have briefly rubbed shoulders with the best in Europe, but the club's directors continued to live a life of luxury as their team subsequently spiralled down the Premiership table. The club spent £70,000 in one year on private jets for directors and senior management, handed out £300,000 per year to charity despite announcing losses of £33 million in the last financial year, and still contribute £500,000 a year to Robbie Fowler's wages despite selling him to Manchester City in January.
Amid those staggering figures, the £20 a month spent looking after Ridsdale's goldfish, resplendent in his plush office in the directors' suite, pales into insignificance. The fish, like the £450,000-a-year chairman, have since moved on. His fellow directors Stephen Harrison and David Spencer have also left, taking their £300,000 and £250,000 salaries. Last week's departures of the coaches Brian Kidd and Eddie Gray saved the club £1 million, while there have been 23 redundancies made to save the club almost £5 million a year.
Newcastle United expect to sign Lee Bowyer within days and will pay him £52,000 a week - £2.5 million a year - for the next five years. For that Newcastle will acquire a 26-year-old out-of-form midfielder and a battered reputation as a club.
Bowyer will be reunited with his former Leeds United colleague Jonathan Woodgate, the pair who stood trial twice for the assault of Sarfraz Najeib, an Asian student, in Leeds city centre three years ago.
