THE man who pulled out of a move to buy Kidderminster Harriers at the last minute, Chris Swan, has bought Blue Square North outfit Redditch United.

Swan takes over at the Valley Stadium after the Reds endured a torrid season, which has seen new manager Simon Redhead working with no playing budget at all.

The property developer came within a whisker of buying the Aggborough outfit in February only to pull out late on, despite agreeing a deal with the club.

Swan blamed extra hidden debts of £165,000 discovered during a period of due dilligence.

This was on top of the £155,000 Harriers had already reported they owed to creditors, as the reason why he declined his move to purchase the club's shares for £1.

Since then chairman Mark Serrell has strongly reputed the Warwickshire-based businessman's claim of extra debts, saying accountant Joe Hancox, from Crow, Clarke Whitehill, had not discovered any financial black hole in his review of Harriers' finances.

Serrell said: "Regarding due dillience, all the work was done by Joe Hancox.

"There is no black hole in Harriers because he would have found it before anybody else."

However, the news Swan had taken over at Redditch finally ends any further speculation of him making another attempt to buy Harriers.

Swan seemed the only option at the start of the year as the club lurched into financial crisis with the management, playing and office staff not paid at the end of January and the club facing a second winding up order because they owed HM Revenue and Customs a reported £75,000.

His pulling out left the club on the edge of administration but also prompted fans trust KHIST, former chairman Barry Norgrove, ex-vice-chairman Neil Savery and an unnamed fans' group to rally round and generate much-needed funds to ensure Harriers avoided a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) by a matter of hours.