Administrators say six potential buyers interested in Rams

MANAGER’S JOB IS SAFE, FANS ARE URGED TO KEEP BACKING THE CLUB

THERE are six potential buyers of Derby County showing interest in the club, the administrators have confirmed.

Derby officially went into administration on Wednesday and an automatic 12-point deduction has moved them from 12th to bottom of the Championship on minus two points.

Andrew Hosking, Carl Jackson and Andrew Andronikou, managing directors at business advisory firm Quantuma, have been appointed joint administrators, and Hosking and Jackson addressed the media at a press conference yesterday.

They said there is constructive dialogue with the EFL over the threat of a further nine-point penalty for financial breaches but admit that a further deduction is likely.

However, the prospect of the club being relegated this season has not put off interested parties.

“There is always lots of interest in football clubs,” Jackson said.

“Say we get 100 expressions of interest, typically you can weed out 90 of those who are not really interested or haven’t got the financial wherewithal or the experience or the skill sets to run a football club.

“So one of our challenges early days is to make sure we are engaging with those parties who tick all those boxes.

“We are encouraged. It is no secret there were a number of interested parties who were engaging with the owner prior to the company going into administration. They are still there and we will re-engage and have re-engaged with them.

“The entities that were talking to the football club are serious, wellfunded entities and have the financial wherewithal to effectively fund this club going forward.

“Three or four were engaging with the company prior to our involvement. That is not to say that we are not going to get others.

“One of our jobs is to widen that. We will run a proper market exercise, we have our own contact base, so we are not just focusing on those entities who were already engaging with Derby, there will be other entities who we have dealt with in the past, who we know will be interested and we’ll make an approach to them or they’ll make an approach to us.

“Our task then is to effectively shorten that list.”

Hosking revealed that two interested parties had come forward overnight.

“We were contacted last night by an individual where two substantial entities who had previously been interested and walked away, and both of those have now re-engaged advisors with a view to approaching us.

“That’s in addition to the four, and that’s by virtue of the fact that obviously a discount can be achieved. So that is why we are not despondent on this particular conference.”

Reports suggest the club is £50m to £70m in debt and one of the debts widely mentioned is around £26m to HMRC.

Administrators would not put an exact figure on the level of the debt.

“I would like to answer that as transparently as possible,” Hosking said.

“But the reality is the owner (Mel Morris) is owed a considerable quantity of money and other group companies, although he has been incredibly supportive and has indicated he is not looking to recover anything from that debt. Equally, we have substantial creditors.

“There is no question, and I know it has been debated in the media, that HMRC are owed a substantial sum of money. They are a preferential creditor that we have to address.

“There are outstanding football creditor debts and equally there are trading suppliers who are owed funds.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate to give you the exact specifics because I don’t think it would portray any realistic figure.

“It is safe to say it has debts in the tens of millions of pounds.”

Wayne Rooney’s position as Rams manager is safe despite the club being in administration.

The administrators have already held “very positive conversations” with Rooney.

Hosking and Jackson were asked if the manager be a casualty of administration.

“Not at all,” Hosking replied. “We need a manager to motivate the team and that’s not come into our consideration at this stage at all.”

Jackson added: “We have had some very positive conversations with Wayne and other members of the coaching squad.”

And there was a reassuring message for Rams fans, who were also encouraged to back the team with support through the turnstiles.

“This club is probably far too big for it not to be passed on,” Hosking said.

“You have a manager who is committed to motivating the squad and you have administrators committed to saving the club.

“Your support will be invaluable, the more that turn up the better.

“I think there are problems but I don’t think anything is insurmountable. If we work together, I think we can get a result here.”