CITY saviours John Wardle and David Makin have between them waved goodbye to more than £10m in their burning desire to ensure that the Blues have a brighter future.

Former major shareholder and City chairman Wardle, who bought vast numbers of shares at £1 each and sold them for 40p, has taken the brunt of the painful financial blow in order to give the club the chance to grow.

Wardle will step down from his role in the next few hours when Thaksin Shinawatra gains full control of the club through his 75 per cent shareholding.

He will, however, stay on the board as deputy chairman and has the never-ending gratitude of the fans and staff for keeping the club afloat and re-establishing it as a Premiership force during some tricky seasons following relegation and the move from Maine Road.

Tributes

Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh has led the tributes to Wardle and his former business partner Makin, who together ploughed in a big chunk of the fortune they made from JD Sports into their passion for City and waved interest payments on their sizeable personal loans to the Blues.

"John and David will lose a lot of money in this transaction, but without them being willing to take that loss, this deal simply could not have happened," revealed a candid Mackintosh in an interview with the official City Magazine to be published on Monday.

"I think it is a sign of great men when they know when the time is right to hand over the reins, especially when you are involved with something as pleasant as a football club.

"I've worked very hard to ensure that John remains part of this club and Thaksin Shinawatra has asked personally that John continues to be involved, but that was not a pre-condition to this deal moving forward.

"Had it been in the best interests of the club, John and David would have happily passed over to somebody else. It is great news that John has agreed to stay on.

"John would never speak about this, of course, but that's down to his modesty. As far as I'm concerned, however, I want this information on record to underline what this club means to him.

"It's been a very important time for the football club. We've moved the club forward under John's stewardship, particularly over the last four years as a Premiership club. We've built on our infrastructure and the club was a very attractive proposition to investors, so we knew we were going to be busy."

Mackintosh revealed that the club had more than 20 would-be investors, some of them serious and some of them time wasters, to investigate over the past six months but that only four were ever remotely plausible and just two of those, Shinawatra and an American consortium, were eventually singled out as right for City.

Proposals

Wardle explained that it was Shinawatra's proposals that clearly stood out above others.

"We had to look at all offers but there were perhaps only two that emerged as serious contenders," he confirmed.

"We then had to compare them and speak at length with both parties. But what also was important to us was what they could offer the club for the future.

"We had a few hairy moments a couple of years ago and, to be fair to Alistair, he worked very hard to bring more money into the football club.

"So while the club was financially stable prior to the transfer of ownership, the reason we needed to seek investment is because we needed investment for the future."

The full interview, including Wardle and Mackintosh's views on Sven, the future and the playing squad, can be found in the latest packed edition of the City Magazine which is on sale from Monday morning.

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