American businessman Chris Kirchner is in the last chance saloon with regards his ailing takeover bid for Derby County.
Numerous deadlines to try and get a deal done have come and gone. Now, Derby's administrators Quantuma have issued a final chance with the cut-off at 5pm on Friday.
Quantuma say they "have taken the decision to engage with other interested parties as a contingency measure".
Kirchner was named as preferred bidder on April 6 but despite having his period of exclusivity extended twice, he has failed to get the deal over the line. The English Football League released a statement on Thursday night, saying they were "incredibly disappointed" by yet another hiccup.
The statement said: "The EFL is incredibly disappointed with this evening’s announcement by Derby County’s Administrators that Chris Kirchner has failed to complete the purchase of the Club. It is imperative that this issue is resolved as a matter of urgency. The League will continue to engage with Quantuma as they now hold discussions with third parties and will support as appropriate the Club as it seeks to exit Administration."
On Wednesday Kirchner was playing golf at the LIV pro-am in Hertfordshire alongside professionals Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.
He was approached by the BBC but gave little away to the barrage of questions, only saying: “It’ll all come out soon."
Veteran Derby defender Curtis Davies told talkSPORT that the uncertainty over the club's future is helping nobody. He said: “I literally scroll through Twitter every morning and search for ‘Derby County.’ That’s what I do, that’s the god’s honest truth. The big thing was the takeover was meant to happen on Tuesday last week and then there was talk of a delay based on American and English Bank Holidays with the Jubilee blah, blah, blah. It’s not happened, a week on.”
Amid the uncertainty, former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley continues to be linked with a bid to purchase the club. Ashley sold the Magpies for £305million to a Saudi consortium back in October, ending his 14-year premiership on Tyneside. According to the Daily Mail , Ashley retains an interest in Derby.
Back in February Ashley's head of PR Keith Bishop said: "He is 100 per cent interested in buying the club. He wants the Derby fans to know he is very much interested. He sees it as a club that could do really well, obviously it's not doing very well at the moment, but with his business acumen, he believes he could really turn it around.
"He's still a very rich man, who has got the funds to put into the club, and he has got the business acumen to change things there. If I were a Derby fan I'd be very happy. With where they are now, they deserve a lot better. And that's what he can do."
Derby will play in League One next season following relegation from the Championship last term, after a 21-point handicap proved too big a hurdle for them. The season is due to begin on July 30.
