Wayne Rooney says all of his Derby County players want to stick around for next season, despite the club's relegation from the Championship and ongoing uncertainty off-the-field.
The Rams' brave fight against the drop was officially ended on Easter Monday, with their defeat at QPR combined with a Reading draw against Swansea.
The club have endured a wretched season of administration, points deductions and transfer embargoes whilst American businessman Chris Kirchner is currently in the process of trying to get a takeover sorted. Rooney knows that deal is crucial to not only the club's future but the chances of keeping the current crop of players together.
He says every one of the players wants to stay: "It is so rare and so unique and so positive, that they all want to stay. The players love being here, they love how we work and they can see myself and my coaches are really developing them, not just into better football players but also better people, which is also important.
"I can say 95 per cent of the players in there I would want to keep but what I can’t do is tell them what the salary will be. The players who are out of contract, I know there are other clubs sniffing round them and putting salaries in front of them which unfortunately sometimes that is what it takes. At this minute we are not in a position where we can do that.
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"I have spoke to the majority of them. That is the frustrating thing, they know I want them to stay and that’s all I can give them.”
Speaking about the whole squad's desire to stay put, he added: "If the EFL agree to that (the business plan put forward by Kirchner) then I know what the budget is and you can work on players salaries. Once that is confirmed I can in principle put numbers to players, but ultimately we still need the ownership to get completed."
As it stands only a handful of players are contracted to Pride Park beyond this summer, including Jason Knight and Krystian Bielik. Richard Stearman is one of the many whose contracts shortly expire, but he has indicated he would be willing to stay. He said: "Like most of the squad, I still want to be here. There is a lot to get through for that to happen, the takeover has to be completed and between the manager and staff they need to decide who they want to hang around and then recruit a lot of players."
Whilst Rooney wants to keep the core of the current squad, he also knows new players will be needed to freshen things up for life in the third tier.
He added: "We have always known there was a possibility we could be in League One, so we have done work on players, which players will fit how we play. We have profiled players for League One and the Championship, we know which players we want to bring in."
