Fancy a football club?

Now here’s a question to get those dreamers going: what will a quarter of a million quid get you these days? Here’s a few options.
Twenty-five delivery mileage only Ford Focuses, currently available from Sandicliffe Ford at £9,999 a throw.
Two new Bentley GT Coupes at more than £120,000 a piece (though preferences for goat’s hide upholstery might push the price up a bit)
Or how about one five-bedroomed executive home in rural King’s Clipstone, near Mansfield?
Now the location matters here because that’s why I posed the question.
Right now, £250,000 could also buy you something far more interesting a few miles down the road: a stake in the League Two football club known as Mansfield Town.
That’s what Newark businessman James Derry is looking for from would-be investors to help him complete a takeover of the struggling Stags.
He and fellow businessman Steve Hymas are prepared to put up half of the £500,000 they reckon is needed to keep the club running for the next few months. They want others to find the rest.
I’m a generous sort, so I had a go.
I rang Nottingham Building Society and asked them what sort of rate I might get for a £250,000 loan to buy a stake in the club. They wanted £1,766 a month for the next 25 years – so I’d end up shelling out the small matter of £529,000 for helping save the Stags.
One small snag in that. That’s the kind of loan they’d look at only if I was buying a stake in Mansfield Town lock, stock and changing rooms.
Unfortunately, current Stags owner Keith Haslam’s idea of a good deal is one that doesn’t include Field Mill, the Mansfield Town ground
It was also a teeny bit more than I’d anticipated spending. So I politely declined their offer and asked the Nationwide building society what sort of deal they might do for me instead.
These are the guys who sponsor the England football team, so I figured they’d be more sympathetic to my sporting ambitions.
No go, I’m afraid. “As far as a personal loan is concerned, we would only loan up to £25,000. And we don’t do person loans for business purposes.
“A loan from our commercial division would have to be secured against property. So unfortunately I really don’t think it’s an option.”
Still, it’s all a bit too much anyway in a month when I’ve had to put cash aside for a laptop computer. You’ll have to count me out, Mr Derry.
Can I suggest instead that you get in touch with someone who has a vested interest in football and understand top-level success. Someone like John Terry, the skipper of Premiership giants Chelsea.He earns enough in two weeks to buy half of Mansfield Town.