Debt-laden Southampton Football Club was pulled back from the brink of collapse yesterday when a consortium of businessmen fronted by Matthew Le Tissier, the former player, paid nearly £500,000 to guarantee exclusive takeover talks.

Southampton, whose parent company Southampton Leisure Holdings plc went into administration last month with nearly £40 million of debt, had been unable to pay staff their wages for March and was itself on the brink of insolvency. Staff and players had been asked to work for nothing.

Pinnacle Property Consultants, the winning consortium, which has ties to Aviva, Southampton Leisure Holdings’ biggest creditor, has 21 days to secure a deal with Southampton FC. The exclusivity fee is nonrefundable and the club can use it to pay its wage bill, tiding it over until the middle of June. However, a second bidder – a wealthy European family – is understood to be waiting in the wings.

Sources predicted that Mr Le Tissier would work with whichever consortium won. “He is just trying to help his old club,” the source said.

Both consortiums have signed confidentiality agreements with Mark Fry of Begbies Traynor, the adminmistrator of Southampton Leisure Holdings, and DLA Piper, the club’s lawyer..

Southampton, which dropped down from the Premiership in 2005, was relegated to League One this month and was docked ten points by the Football League because its parent company went into administration. That penalty will kick in next season, making it much harder for the club to win promotion back to the Championship.

Southampton Leisure Holdings’ key creditors are Aviva, which financed the club’s stadium and is owed £30 million, Barclays, the club’s bank, which is owed £5 million, and HM Revenue & Customs, which is owed £2 million.