It emerged on Friday that John Batchelor, owner of York City when it went into administration seven years ago and vilified by some supporters for his role in its demise, wants to become the fourth member of the Stags buyout group.

Immediately, concerned Mansfield fans questioned the move – remembering reports that he 'fiddled for two years while York burned'.

But Mr Batchelor insists that his football background has no relevance to his involvement at Field Mill, which would be 'totally different'.

• Ex-football club chairman wants to join Derry's Stags consortium

In an exclusive interview with Chad he said: "My interest would be purely on the commercial side.

"I want to make an investment into the football club and then work on attracting new and different income to Mansfield, including away from matchdays.

"I am quite happy to be as transparent as possible, I am not trying to hide anything. I am an open person and willing to talk to anyone about anything.

"I would like to be given this chance to make a difference and be successful in football.

"I have been successful in many other areas away from football, but what happened at York has dogged me for the last seven years.

"I am quite happy to talk to anyone about York, what happened there and answer questions.

"My business in football is unfinished. My wife thinks I am crazy, my kids think I am crazy. They want to know why I want to go back and put myself in a position to be shot down again.

"But football gets into your blood."

Mr Batchelor says that he is prepared to match the investment of the other consortium members – James Derry, Steve Hymas and Andy Sutton – as they complete the buyout of controversial Mansfield Town owner Keith Haslam.

On Thursday night Stags chief executive Stephen Booth told a fans forum that the Derry consortium was now 'effectively in control' of the Stags, though the deal will not be signed for at least another week.

• James Derry in control at Stags as takeover edges close

The consortium is investing a minimum £0.5 working capital into the club, buying out Mr Haslam for £1 and renting Field Mill from him over a 10-year lease – with an option to buy the stadium at an agreed price in the next four years.

Mr Batchelor has held talks with Mr Derry over recent days, but will meet the other members of the consortium for the first time at the match against Grimsby on Saturday.

Shareholder

The group has yet to decide who will run the football club as chief executive, but Mr Derry told Chad on Friday: "If John became involved he would just be part of a team running the club, really he would be bringing in money for us, 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."

And Mr Batchelor added that he was ready to work for the club under that arrangement, saying: "I know all about Keith Haslam, but I don't want to run the club. I will be an ideas person. And James can temper my ideas.!"

Like the other directors he would not be salaried, but said he would want a commission on any extra commercial business he brought to the club.

Mr Batchelor (49) explained: "I want to make an investment into the club and in return I would like to be a member of the board. Then I could go out to sponsors and say that I could deliver what I was promising, within reason of course, because I was board member.

"I would want a commission as I am prepared to put all my other business interests aside for the next 12 months and devote my time purely to Mansfield Town.

"But I am quite happy for people to know that, to know how much the deals are worth to the club and how much I would get out of them.

"I have done this sort of thing at a fairly reasonable level in the past, particularly in motor sport."

While at York he said his commercial ideas helped to treble season ticket sales and lead to a record sale of replica shirts.

The businessman continued with his Honda Integrity motor sport team after leaving York in 2002 – a venture he had tried to link-up with the football club through the York Sporting Club, including adding a chequered flag to the York City badge.

His team won the British Touring Car Championships a year later, he negotiated a major sponsorship deal with Varta Batteries and then he concentrated on setting up First Serve Group Ltd, a Nuneaton-based business buying and selling companies.

The colourful character admitted that some of his ideas 'may be wacky' and said that he had learned from his time trying to bring money into York.

"At that time I had to do extreme things and raise our profile because there was a £1.3m hole to fill.

"Yes I changed my name to 'John B&Q' to get sponsorship from them as a rally driver, I still have the Austin Powers car from another idea which you have used on the Chad website story.

"But this time I will have a more measured approach. Afterall, Mansfield is not insolvent!

"But I will still be reasonably unconventional, though there is only so far you can go.

Investment

"The rest of the board can temper my ideas. Anything we do has to be acceptable to everyone – the fans, the club, Mansfield people and the Football League.

"I will push boundaries, however, and try the unusual.

"My role is to come up with ideas and back them with investment. I am showing my commitment by wanting to make this investment."

Mr Batchelor, a long-time Burnley fan who lives in Clitheroe, added: "But I don't want or need a load of abuse in my life again. I am trying to be a positive force for Mansfield, rather than create problems.

"I don't want to become the centre of an issue for the consortium, but this is a great opportunity.

"Rumour and speculation from York has dogged my life for the last seven years. People all seem to have an opinion about me without knowing the facts.

"As I have said, I happy to talk about what happened at York to anyone."

Mr Batchelor bought the club for £1, but nine months later it went into administration. He failed to buy the ground, as fans say he promised, and they claim that sponsorship money was paid directly to the owner who then only put a quarter of it back into the club in loans – the rest of it going to his motorsport interests.

• To read more about the accusations surrounding Mr Batchelor and York City click here and here

But Mr Batchelor says that the problems started with the previous chairman, who transferred the Bootham Crescent ground into a holding company and then sold shares in that to property developers.

"I did nothing wrong. Yes I made money out of the club, I don't deny it. I suppose I made a profit of about £120,000 over 18 months in total.

"But I did not take a salary and I could have made far more than that on a salary from working elsewhere.

"At the end I twice put in £40,000 to give fans time to do a deal with the administrators.

"Really the collapse of ITV Digital, which happened just after I took over, cut the legs from under us. Suddenly we could hardly make any money from transfers.

"For instance the keeper Alan Fettis, who we might have got upto £1m for, went for £60,000.

"We had players on high wages and even though we trebled season ticket sales, brought in money from the commercial side and went top of the table, I could not find enough money to keep us going and so we went into administration.

"I know I am not flavour of the month in York, but I tried hard to make it work as a business – and football clubs do have to be run as a business."

After he left York, pressure from fans led to the DTI investigating his involvement at Bootham Crescent.

'Web warriors'

Mr Batchelor told Chad: "They turned my life inside out for two years, but I was given a clean bill of health.

"I know the Web warriors will be having a go at me, but I will talk to the fans face to face, any time at any place . . . just as I did at York."

The would-be Stags director has been to Field Mill just once before and says: "That doesn't matter. I will be at the match against Grimsby talking to as many people as possible.

"Perhaps as I am not a Mansfield fan I can bring a degree of objectivity about things, but I do not want to stop any passion for the club, far from it.

"To watch the steady decline of Mansfield Town, its attendances, the League position, has been depressing.

"There is a tremendous area here to draw on and nothing to stop us – if I can become part of it – from getting it right.

"I want to be involved at a decent club with a decent reputation and make it work.

"That is why I contacted Stephen Booth when I saw the club was for sale. He introduced me to James (Derry) and we have got along well so far."