Old-boy Stew in Oyston buyout

REDDY TO RUMBLE: Fulham new boy Ryan Babel POOL RESCUE: Stewart FORMER Blackpool striker Paul Stewart is fronting a bid to rescue the crisis-hit League One club.

Stewart, 54, an England international who started his career at Bloomfield Road before going on to star for Manchester City Tottenham and Liverpool, is leading a consortium of businessmen looking to buy the beleaguered Seasiders from long-time owner Owen Oyston, 85.

Stewart still lives on the Fylde coast and has strong commercial links in the area.

He has helped formulate a plan to revive the club’s fortunes after a feud between Oyston (below) his son Karl and investor Valeri Belokon has brought the club to its knees.

The bid has already got guaranteed funding from a commercial finance firm with experience of football takeovers. A first bid to Oyston was tabled last Wednesday – but any deal is complicated by a High Court ruling which ordered him to pay Belokon

£34.6million. An initial £10m payment was made last month but Oyston is reportedly struggling to raise the rest with £10m due at the end of January.

He cannot sell without his former business partner’s permission until the debt is settled.

And Belokon has now made an application for a court receiver to recover the outstanding sum.

The consortium is trying to make contact with Belokon but the banking tycoon is believed to be on a cruising holiday. He will be offered the chance to stay on as an investor.

A source close to the takeover plan said: “There are a lot of issues to resolve but we are talking about serious business people headed by Paul Stewart, a man who has a genuine affection for the club.”

Belokon accused the Oystons of illegally stripping the club of

£26.77m after the Tangerines had spent the

2010-11 season in the Premier League.

Karl, who was the club’s chairman, paid himself a salary of £11m that year.

Many fans have stopped supporting the club financially through their “Not a Penny More” campaign.