So just who is this mystery Irish consortium vying to pump £20 million into Doncaster Rovers Football Club?

Championship side Doncaster has announced that an Irish consortium has made an offer to buy out the newly-promoted Vikings, who are strapped for cash. It’s like a throwback to the days of the boom when Drumaville – Charlie Chawke, Louis Fitzgerald and pals – bought out another Championship side, Sunderland.

Rumours have been flying amongst Vikings' fans about the identity of the proposed investors. They're linked to the racing community, went one version. John Magnier and JP McManus, both kings of the turf, are also past investors in Manchester United. Could it be them? According to people close to them, it appears not.

Another rumour surfaced that the Irish investor was linked to the 1990s deal to buy Doncaster’s old Belle Vue stadium. Denis O’Brien knows all about this, of course. The details were played out in the Moriarty tribunal, whose findings O’Brien strongly rejects. Despite several attempts to contact his spokesman and also calls to the man himself, we still don’t know whether or not he is involved.

Then yesterday at a press conference for local sports hacks, the club apparently named the proposed Irish investor as Sequentia Capital (of which we can find little trace) and a Mr Kevin Phelan. He, of course, was the man who brokered the Belle Vue deal examined by Moriarty. The Irish proposal, the club said, was "on the backburner" while it examined a second, local bid. It just gets curiouser and curiouser .....