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Man who introduced Rangers chiefs to 49ers supports one of their Premiership rivals – and even OWNED part of club
He also held talks with man who invested into the club he support's biggest rivals
THE man who introduced Rangers chiefs to the club's incoming American owners has revealed he's a lifelong fan of a DIFFERENT Scottish Premiership club.
And he even used to OWN part of them.
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Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises are leading the potential takeover of Rangers, a deal that has been agreed in principle.
US health tycoon Cavenagh and the business wing of the NFL giants are closing-in on their stunning takeover of the Ibrox club.
Cavenagh, the owner of billion-dollar insurance firm ParetoHealth, had been wanting to invest in football for some time and had sought assistance in finding the right club.
That's where Les Allan came into play.
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The Edinburgh-born investment banker is now based in the United States and has played a role in several football club takeovers involving American investment.
Allan had previously worked with Cavenagh on a proposal to buy QPR but nothing came to fruition.
When another Scot in exile, finance chief Andy Mason in Dubai, floated Rangers as a potential investment option, Allan knew who to talk to - Andrew Cavenagh.
Allan, who founded the Goals Soccer Centres in the USA, has now opened up on his role in the potential Gers takeover.
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Appearing on The Warm-Up, Allan said: "The deal is a groundbreaking one if it happens for Scottish football.
"My involvement is simply - I wish I'd have been able to tell you I had this grand plan about becoming an investment banker buying and selling football clubs and other sports businesses - but it's not the way it happened. Just decades worth of relationships on both sides of the transaction.
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"Specifically, we did some work with Andrew Cavenagh looking for a club for Andrew.
"He was very detailed in what he was looking for and about maybe almost a year ago we started that process and he's done a lot of work on looking for something which would meet his requirements, his ambitions.
"But in the last few months, he teamed up with 49ers and that changes the game a little bit. When you're starting to work with an organisation quite as established and at the very top table of the top sports in the world.
"So when a connection of mine over the last few decades said 'do you think you've got an idea of who might be interested in Rangers?' it didn't take more than 24 hours to say 'you know what, I think I do.'
"Quick connections to Rangers shareholders and so on ended up where we are today. That's what happened."
He added: "Every day you're fielding different inquiries and once in a while a golden nugget comes along via different connections. That's what happened here.
"You don't know what's going to be on the end of the telephone the trick is being prepared for it.
"When that inquiry comes in you think 'I do know where to go' as opposed to saying who do I call?
"I knew exactly who to call, that's the trick."
Allan has a long history of involvement in football.
While he's played a key role in getting Rangers and their prospective new US owners to the table, he is in fact a HEARTS supporter.
Allan also revealed he used to OWN a stake in the club, that he sold on when Vladimir Romanov took charge.
He explained: "I started at an investment management firm in Edinburgh when I was 19 on the corner of Charlotte Square.
"I've been in and around people who have been in professional sport for a while and over the decades, it's connections.
"For instance, I owned a fair percentage of Hearts and then I sold that when Romanov came in."
Despite being a Hearts fan, Allan revealed he had discussions with the now-Hibs shareholder Billy Foley about investing in Scottish football.
US billionaire Foley and his Black Knight firm last year completed a deal to take a significant minority stake in the Hibees.
Just over a year previously, Foley had completed a deal to buy English Premier League outfit Bournemouth and became the club's chairman.
Allan played a role in making that deal happen and ranks it as the BEST deal he's made - and not just in football.
The banker continued: "I was thinking about wearing a maroon V-neck this morning but I thought that would be a little over the top, so I went neutral this morning!
"I'm a lifelong Jambo, my dad went to Tynecastle High School everything else.
"I had nothing to do with the Hibs deal, except I had several conversations with Bill (Foley) and his team about Scottish football.
"There's another investor that is beyond thorough on the work that they do, you have no idea the amount of work these guys do that they're approaching the investment in the right way, that they fully understand the history, the culture, the personalities involved.
"How they're going to executive the business plan, that on day one when someone says he'res the keys to Bournemouth, how are you going to run it.
"We spend more time doing this more than anything else, interviewing and discovering through conversations form the potential buyers, that they are indeed the right person or people to be introduced into this conversation.
"The last thing you want to be is associated with a deal where the guy buys the club and the club falls apart. That would be awful for everybody, for me as a professional, you want to make sure that, in this instance, that Bill Foley and his organisation is the right organisation.
"They were absolutely the right buyer, it took eight, nine months with Bill, the Bournemouth transaction,
"The Bournemouth transaction might turn out to be possibly the best deal I've ever done bar none, not just in football.
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"The way that Bill has absolutely executed what he said he would do, to this point, everything he said he would do on day one that's what's been happening. They might be a little ahead of schedule, but that's the result of excruciatingly hard work and detail."
Les Allan appeared on The Warm-Up, the William Hill SPFL’s weekly preview show. Check out the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWarm__Up
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