But he told Chad on Friday that former York owner John Batchelor is not part of his group yet - and if he did become involved he would just be part of a team running the club.

The colourful Mr Batchelor is best known to football fans for his ill-fated time in charge of York, which went into administration after nine months under his stewardship in 2002.

It is thought that Mr Batchelor - who admits to coming up with 'wacky ideas' - wants to be involved on the commercial side at Field Mill, attracting sponsorship and extra revenue to the Stags.

Mr Derry edged closer to owning the Stags on Thursday evening when chief executive Stephen Booth told a fans forum that the Derry consortium was 'effectively in control' of the club.

• James Derry 'in control' at Field Mill as takeover almost complete

Mr Derry told Chad when asked about the link with John Batchelor: "He is one of several people whom we have been in discussions with and who have been introduced to us.

"He has got some interesting ideas on attracting revenue to a club and has access to national advertising companies, so could be good for the club from that point of view.

"He admits that some of his ideas are wacky . . . but sometimes wacky ideas can work.

"But he would not be in control, as he was at York. If he became involved he would just be part of a team running the club and would not be making any decisions on his own to affect the running of the club.

"He would only ever be a minority shareholder. People say he could be another Keith Haslam, but that could never be the case. He would not have any control.

"He has not yet met the other members of my consortium and if they said no, we would not even consider bringing him in anyway.

"The priority for now is to complete the takeover."

Mr Batchelor would point out to his critics that York was already in deep trouble when he bought the club for £1 - and that its subsequent demise was more due to the actions of the previous chairman, Douglas Craig, rather than his own failure to deliver on promises.

But York fans remember that he diverted sponsorship money into his own company, before loaning some of it back to the football club. And that he failed to buy the ground as he promised when taking over.

He was also known for his gimmicks and publicity stunts in a bid to raise the profile of the football club - including posing as Austin Powers.

He became chairman in April 2002 after the then vilified chairman Douglas Craig separated the football club from its stadium, Bootham Crescent, with suggestions that he wanted to sell the ground for property development.

Mr Batchelor bought York for £1 and promised to buy the ground, too, and offer the fans' new supporters seats on the board in return for their support.

But neither promise turned into reality, even though the fans did get behind the businessman – who was also promoting his British Touring Car Championship motor racing team, Honda Integrity, at the same time.

His ambitious plans seemed to include a link-up between the two in terms of sponsorship through the York Sporting Club, as well as relocating to a new stadium.

And he also threatened to sue the Football League over the collapse of ITV Digital, which hit many lower level clubs hard – gaining national publicity.

In November 2002 the chairman even went onto the pitch at half-time during a match to promise giving the supporters trust 100% of the football club.

That also failed to happen.

Eight months after taking charge, York went into administration with debts of around £500,000.

Mr Batchelor blamed the ITV Digital failure and the collapse in the transfer market for his inability to turn the club's finances around.

He left with fans feeling let down and questioning some of the financial deals at the club.

For instance, property company Persimmon Homes – part of the row surrounding the previous chairman – sponsored York Racing Club, but most of the money never went to the football club.

And some of that was put into the football club as a loan by Mr Batchelor, which he later withdrew.

On leaving Bootham Crescent, he said he had lost money when York went into administration.

He was quoted as saying: "Look, I'm a businessman. That means I have to make a profit from what I do. And that includes football. I know people find that hard to take because they think football is a community asset. It is, but it doesn't stand a chance if it can't make a profit."