New Coventry City chairman Ray Ranson will make money available for manager Iain Dowie to spend in the transfer window after the club were saved from the brink of dis-aster with an 11th-hour takeover on Friday.

The Sky Blues were just hours away from being plunged into administration and, therefore, a Championship relegation battle because of the loss of ten points. But the takeover by the SISU Capital consortium - fronted by former Birmingham City full back Ranson - was finally rubber-stamped just ahead of the 4pm deadline.

It was a self-imposed cut-off point for the Sky Blues, who filed an intention to go into administration in order to buy themselves time. The takeover deal sees Ranson become the club's chairman and £20 million has been pledged to 'support the development' of the club.

He said: "On so many occasions, this deal has nearly fallen over but the main thing is that we got there in the end. It couldn't have been done without the support of people such as board members Joe Elliott and Geoffrey Robinson.

"I haven't met with Iain Dowie yet, because we have both been very busy! I want to sit down with him as soon as possible to see what his plans are, but there will be funds available.

"We have restructured the debt to give the club a stable future. You only have to look around the Ricoh Arena to see the potential of the club and the fact that we have got a loyal fan-base in a one-team city."

David Allvey, chairman of Arena Coventry Limited, said last night: "We are appreciative of all the efforts made by the existing shareholders of CCFC in their support for the club and of Joe Elliott in stepping forward to chair the club during a very challenging period. We now look forward to working with the new owners.

"We will give Ray Ranson and his team our full support to assist their efforts in the next phase of the football club's development."

The deal marks the end of ten months of frustration for manager Dowie, who took over at the Ricoh Arena in February with a promise that a takeover was imminent and that money would be available for transfers.

But that particular deal, involving an American consortium, fell through and that has left the City boss without the funds he expected to launch a bid for promotion.

However, he did bring in nine players during the summer, spending more than £1 million on Leon Best and Gary Borrow-dale, while he has managed to guide his side into the top half of the Coca-Cola Championship, thanks largely to the goals of Maltese striker Michael Mifsud.

The fact that this deal has gone through will relieve the pressure on Dowie to offload the forward, who has 13 goals this season.