POTENTIAL City owner Gianni Paladini is desperate to get back into football because he is “bored”.

The 69-year-old Italian is in talks with Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes about a possible takeover at Valley Parade.

The former QPR chairman, who was also Benito Carbone’s agent during his time with the club, has been out of the game since leaving Loftus Road in 2011.

He turned his attention to the Bantams after admitting defeat in a drawn-out £20 million bid to buy Birmingham, the team he has grown to support after moving to England at the age of 22.

Paladini, who has also been linked with Nottingham Forest and Motherwell, is understood to be restless and wants to get back into the business again.

A source told the Telegraph & Argus he is after one last hurrah in football and is not keen to hang around. He has told friends he wants to be active.

Solihull-based Paladini would not provide the money himself if he came in but has got wealthy backers. While at QPR, he secured the financial clout of friends Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore to bankroll their rise to the top flight.

Sources within City had repeatedly denied rumours of Paladini’s interest in recent weeks before Lawn came clean yesterday to confirm that negotiations were underway.

A confidentiality agreement is in place while those discussions take place but it is likely to be a speedy outcome, one way or the other.

Boss Phil Parkinson will want to know where he stands with the summer budget well in time for the next transfer window. So a time limit is expected to be set to prevent the talks from dragging on.

Paladini, who is described as a “proper character”, is the first prospective buyer to sit down seriously with the two chairmen since Guiseley director Steve Parkin’s abortive bid four years ago to secure City and the Bulls and turn them into one Bradford “super club”.

City have insisted the door is always open to potential investment but Lawn has repeatedly stressed they would only sell to someone who they believed had the club’s best interests at heart.

He said: “Julian and I won’t stand in the way of anyone who can put more money in and take the club beyond where we can. But we still want to make sure the club is run properly so it can be passed on to the next custodians.

“We’ve signed a confidentiality undertaking and we are talking to him (Paladini). As soon as there’s any clarity either way, we will let the fans know.”

Paladini registered his own private company, Bradford City Holdings Ltd, in February with former Leyton Orient manager Mauro Milanese, who resigned as a director at the end of last month.

Despite the name, there is no direct connection with the club themselves. He did something similar by setting up a holding company when he was trying unsuccessfully to buy Birmingham.