Ron Atkinson lined up for director of football role at Birmingham City if Gianni Paladini succeeds in takeover Paladini is keen to recruit Atkinson in a senior role should his bid for the Championship club be accepted by current owner Carson Yeung, with an initial £25 million offer already rejected. Atkinson, known as 'Big Ron', is a long-time friend of Paladini and has not worked in football since leaving Nottingham Forest in 1999. But Paladini, who is spearheading a bid with a consortium of Italian businessmen, has admitted the 73 year-old is likely to be handed a post at St Andrew's if he succeeds in buying Birmingham. Atkinson managed the club's bitter rivals Villa for three years in the 1990s. Paladini said: "You need people with experience of business, of course, but also experience of running a football club. You have to know football. If we took over, I would probably ask someone like Ron Atkinson to help me. I have known Ron for years, we are good friends. He is local, and his knowledge and expertise is great. He is a personality. I have offices in London and business to attend to there, so I wouldn't be at the club all the time. I would need somebody around to help. What type of role? It would be sporting director, something like that maybe. Birmingham are understood to be unimpressed with Paladini's public courting of the club, with other rival bids expected from consortiums in the Far East and Asia. Yeung, who is facing charges of money laundering, wants at least £40 million. The Football League are also paying close scrutiny to Paladini's takeover plans. Paladini, the former Queens Park Rangers chairman, will be examined under the League's 'fit and proper persons' test if he manages to complete a buy-out. The Italian was charged last year for breaching third party ownership rules relating to the signing of Alejandro Faurlin while at Rangers, although it was later unproven.