PAT Bannister is close to finalising a deal to buy former Bromsgrove Rovers' chairman Stuart Arnold's shares in the club.

The chief executive received written confirmation from Stuart Arnold's solicitor that his fresh offer to buy the former chairman's shares had been accepted in principle.

The pair are meeting halfway in a deal which is at the contract stage and Bannister is set to meet Arnold later this week after the latter returned from work commitments abroad.

Bannister received confirmation of the prospective deal last Tuesday and last Wednesday held crunch talks with George Rooney over the managers position at the club.

The talks followed a string of poor results which had seen Rovers slump to third from bottom of the Dr Martens League Western Division.

Rooney was left to sleep on it overnight and on Thursday morning Bannister revealed the pair had parted company.

Following this, Rovers directors Tom Hebberd, Tony Partridge, Les Reid and Phil Baker released a statement voicing their disapproval of Bannister's take-over, his running of the club and of Rooney's departure.

Bannister, who is 'very disappointed' about the statement, is meeting with club chairman David McQueen and fellow directors to discuss what action should now be taken towards the four directors.

Phil Baker, who is also chairman of the Supporters' Association steering committee, revealed: "I've had a couple of chats with Pat where we discussed the contents of the statement and agreed to disagree over a number of points."

In the meantime, Baker and members on the newly formed Supporters Association will be meeting on Monday for their next scheduled meeting of the steering committee. A venue and time are yet to be arranged.