Plymouth's preferred bidders are looking to sell the club before they even buy it.
In a statement on the club's official website, acting chairman Peter Ridsdale says he has been asked to buy the club as 'it has become clear that the acquirers property expertise and focus could conflict with the demands of ensuring that the football club could complete all the work necessary to fulfil the requirements of the Football League.'
The preferred bidders were described as 'genuine football people' by Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle, but he later admitted that he didn't exactly know who the buyers were and the fact that they are apparently focused on the property rather than the club does call Guilfoyle's statement into serious question. He is also claimed to have rejected a 3p/£ offer for the club in favour of the preferred bid that only generated a quarter of that sum for creditors.
Ridsdale says the club will be handed a long-term lease on their Home Park home, although such a deal hasn't worked out so well for other clubs placed in similar circumstances, while the BBC are reporting that the preferred bidders will be lending money to Ridsdale in order to buy the club.
The preferred bidders still haven't been named, with three weeks until the deal is due to be completed, but it's reasonable to expect them to be property developers with little to no interest in football.