Derby County's immediate future is far from certain with yet their proposed takeover on the verge of collapse.
Chris Kirchner has been given a non-negotiable final deadline of Friday (June 10) at 5pm before Derby's administrators Quantuma scrap their dealings with him.
The American businessman was first named as preferred bidder on April 6 but despite having his period of exclusivity extended twice, he has repeatedly failed to get the deal over the line. The English Football League ( EFL ) released a statement on Thursday night, saying they were "incredibly disappointed" by yet another snag.
Derby were relegated from the Championship last season, after a 21-point handicap proved too big a hurdle to overcome. As it stands, the Rams have just five players contracted for next season as they look to somehow mount a promotion challenge out of League One.
Their wafer-thin squad includes the midfield quartet of Krystian Bielik, Max Bird, Jason Knight and Louie Sibley as well as young centre-forward Jack Stretton. A whole host of players have contracts that end later this month and their futures are far from certain, including talisman Tom Lawrence, long-serving Craig Forsyth and veteran centre-half Curtis Davies.
Davies appeared on talkSPORT to air his frustrations at the ongoing takeover impasse.
He said: "I’ve only spoken to a couple of players about their situations; there’s obviously so many out of contract that to keep in touch with everyone isn’t that easy, but I have spoken to a couple and it’s kind of the same message we’re getting. We’re getting our information from social media and news outlets. We’re all waiting to see what’s happening (but) it doesn’t look positive for the current takeover. So that’s the worry.”
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Manager Wayne Rooney has stressed he wants to be the man to try and bring Derby back but has repeatedly said he can only do that with certain assurances. The new EFL season begins earlier this year due to the World Cup, with a start date of July 30. Davies confirmed that pre-season is due to begin in just over a fortnight's time, but as it stands he will be one of many not returning to the club's Moor Farm training ground later this month.
He added: "We only have five signed players, unless we’re talking about the whole of the under-18s and the new scholars training with the first team straight away.
“We’re meant to report back on the 27th (June) so we have got the best part of just over two weeks to assemble a squad and the manager has already been on record saying, if anything, we probably need nearer 40 players because we need to restock our under-23s and the first team because we took all the best from the under-23s into the first team and, unfortunately for them, they were training with six or seven players because they didn’t have a squad themselves.
"So the manager knows we need to restock at all levels in order to get the structure of the club back."
