Championship side Derby County, which has been in an administrative takeover, has still not found a new owner, and the most complicated issues are huge debts, unknown lawsuits from two teams (Middlesbrough, Wecombe Wanderers), and the fact that the team's home stadium is still owned by the former owner, and the only good news for the team is that the performance on the pitch has far exceeded expectations, and there is even a glimmer of relegation success. Then in 2022, the problems that have been accumulated and unsolved begin to erupt one by one.
There were still no priority buyers in January
As early as late December, Rooney said in an interview that custodian Quantuma had informed him that he would announce the identity of the priority buyer in a week's time, so he would not sell players cheaply. However, there is still no news after a week. Later, Quantuma issued a statement through the team's official website that it had selected a preferred buyer from three buyers, but because the EFL requested that the funding plan include an assessment of the Middlesbrough and Weycombe Rovers incidents, none of the three buyers were willing to bid until the lawsuit was resolved, so that the custodian could not nominate the preferred buyer. The EFL also issued a statement in response, saying that if the lawsuit with Middlesbrough and Wellcombe Rangers is lost, it will have an impact on derby County's future defeat, so it believes that new buyers need to consider the relevant factors, and points out that since Derby County cannot currently determine that it has sufficient funds to operate until the end of the quarter by prioritizing buyers, it must prove to the EFL that the team has sufficient funds to operate until the end of the quarter through other means, such as reducing operating expenses or selling players to obtain income.
The first time the bone is removed and off the top of the list
As a result, the situation in Derby County returned to July, due to financial instability, the EFL transfer ban, not only could not sign and borrow new players, but also could not renew the contract with existing players, resulting in the signing of the second half of the summer contract, very good veteran Phil Jagielka (Phil Jagielka) could not renew the contract, and finally joined Stoke City. On the other hand, in order to provide funds, Derby County is also forced to clear people in desperation, selling the main midfielder Graeme Shinnie to Wigan Athletic in League One for 35,000 pounds, and several outstanding youth players have won the Attention and Bidding of The Championship and even the Premier League team. Because the situation was completely different from what manager Rooney learned, there were rumors that Rooney felt betrayed and planned to leave the team, and the news was even hotter after Everton fired Benitez, and finally ended with Rooney himself saying that he declined Everton's interview invitation.
Meanwhile, just when everyone thought that the takeover stalemate and bonebreaking would break the morale of the team, Derby County instead beat Sheffield United 2-0 on February 15, overshadowing Barnsley, who had only won two at the time, and left the bottom of the table for the first time since being deducted points for the first time in September. As a result, relegation, which was originally regarded as an impossible task, seemed to have ignited great hope.
The original deadline and liquidation are doubtful
In this "statement controversy", the EFL also mentioned that the custodian Quantum needs to show the EFL how to ensure that the team has sufficient working capital The deadline is February 1, and the deadline is February 1 because Derby County's available funds will run out in February, so the relevant proof needs to be submitted before February to ensure that Derby County can operate until the end of the quarter. It's easy to think of a date like this, if Derbyshire doesn't finish selling by February, it has to be liquidated. EFL chairman Rick Parry said that even if Derby County failed to determine that there was enough money, it did not mean that it was going to go into liquidation, but since the team will not have working capital, the EFL will look at whether derby County will be allowed to continue playing. This also means that if Derbyshire fails to convince the EFL by the end of the month, the consequences, while not necessarily the worst liquidation, will still be directly relegated, or even expelled from the EFL (i.e. professional teams), and liquidation will depend on how short-funded Derbyshire is, but these major secrets will certainly not be released to the public in the short term.
Not surprisingly, the EFL's clarification became darker and darker, not only making Derby County fans worry that their team was about to disappear, but even the official concern about the incident, several cabinet members expressed their efforts to fight for government interference in the acquisition situation, and discussed the incident with the Minister of Sports, and finally the Minister of Culture and Sports replied that he had pressed the EFL and Quantuma to take practical action as soon as possible, which indirectly led to the emergence and postponement of new buyers.
Middlesbrough, Wellcombe Rangers lawsuit "breakthrough"
The perfect outcome of the matter was, of course, having a priority buyer emerge and then successfully take over, leaving Derby county out of bankruptcy custody, but Quantuma's failure to nominate a preferred buyer was largely limited by allegations from Middlesbrough and Wellcombe Rangers. Middlesbrough accused Derby County of qualifying for the 6th place promotion play-off because of a breach of financial rules in the 18-19 season, leaving Middlesbrough, who was no. 7 in that season, to miss out on the opportunity to compete for promotion. On the other hand, Derby County successfully relegated 21st by 1 point last season, and The Comby Rangers, who were relegated by 22nd last season, believe that the deduction should be carried out last season, so the Comby Rangers should not be relegated, and therefore claim the loss of relegation from Derby County.
Quantuma's initial description of the takeover situation to the reluctance of three buyers to bid until the lawsuit becomes clear, it is easy to think that Middlesbrough and Wellcombe Wanderers are the biggest roadblocks to Derby County's escape from the crisis. In this regard, Middlesbrough boss Steve Gibson gave an interesting insight, he believes that since potential buyers feel that the allegation is not possible, it is not at all a risk of the allegation, but on the other hand, Quantuma pointed out that the price failure is due to the buyer's reluctance to bear the risk of litigation, which is contradictory.
Whether the allegations are reasonable or not is a matter of opinion, some people think that the deduction of points is not enough to compensate for the interests of the injured team (more obvious in the case of Wellcome than the Rangers), and some people think that this will open a precedent for the incessant accusations and then claims between the teams, but it is undeniable that the middle-town and Wellcombe Rangers lawsuits have been exaggerated on the one hand as a roadblock to prevent Derby County from returning to normal, and on the other hand, it has indeed brought a lot of uncertainty to Derby County's future profits and losses.
Labeled as the big bad guy, Middlesbrough and The Waicombe Rangers bosses quickly fought back, offering to negotiate with Derbyshire to help each other complete the acquisition. The three parties had a conversation under the EFL as an intermediary, and although all parties said that the results were positive, they still did not dispel the concerns of potential buyers.
Second bone removal
It is difficult to avoid the lawsuits of Middlesbrough and Weconby Wanderers, which means that the chances of someone taking over before the deadline are low, so Quantuma can only rely on open source and throttling to maintain the operation of the team, and on the right side, selling players to cash out is generally to sell the players with the highest value and the highest salary, but Quantuma seems to have adopted another strategy this time. In the departures of the week before the transfer window closed, Dylan Williams, 18, joined Chelsea Juniors and Jordon Brown joined League Two's Leiden Orient, both of whom together played just over a dozen games for Derby County. On the contrary, the junior "master brothers" who have become the mainstay of the team this season, such as the 8 million-dollar Irish international Jason Knight, have not left the team, and there have been earlier reports that Derby County has refused to sell Louie Sibley, who has only started 9 games this season, which has shocked other Championship teams.
In this regard, Derby County seems to have adopted a selling strategy of releasing the youth army and staying in the first team. Looking at the composition of Derby County's squad, about 30% are veterans who can't sell at a price; about 50% are the most expensive but not high salaries, and only 20% are the most financially burdened players. Because the proportion of the youth army is high enough, Derby County still has room to sell young players, so it has sold the "youth army of the youth army" with minimal blows to the first team, which is also barely in line with Wayne Rooney's statement that there will be no more first-team players leaving the team.
Considering that Derby County's current point-snatching situation does give them the possibility of relegation, this is not a bad thing, but at this stage, it is difficult to estimate what kind of impact it will have on derbyshire's restart in the future (of course, provided that Derbyshire can start again).
New buyers, deadlines postponed and pre-race parades
Coming to the end of January, it can be said that it has been the most happy week for Derby County fans in these months. Suddenly, it was reported that the Binnie family of the American consortium was interested in acquiring DerbyShire, and then formally submitted an application. While the bid did not include the acquisition of home Pride Park, the Binny family was reportedly aware in advance of the additional liabilities that the Middlesbrough and Wellcombe Rangers lawsuits could bring, which is undoubtedly good news in the event of a standoff between the custodian, the EFL and Miwe. As a result, Quantuma immediately met with the EFL and tried to postpone the deadline for providing financial proof by 1 month to March 1.
However, there was still no new news about the acquisition in the following week, and there were even reports that the Binny family feared that Derbyshire would be liquidated due to the lack of progress of the acquisition and the delay in the lawsuits of Middlesbrough and Wellcombe Rangers.
Subsequently, in the Derby County match against Birmingham on 30 January, Derby County fans planned a pre-match rally to express their dissatisfaction with the nearly no progress of the acquisition, which ended in nearly 10,000 fans attending the rally, which was pointed at the EFL, Middlesbrough and Wellcombe Rangers, who were seen as the biggest resistance, and the custodian Quantuma. The match also exploded, with 32,211 people, the most people in attendance this season. Derby County also continued to show their undead style in the match, trailing 0-2 in 56 minutes and scoring two goals in the last 3 minutes of extra time to draw Birmingham 2-2.
By the end of January, the situation in Derbyshire seemed to have improved slightly, with 1 month to solve the funding problem, and new buyers appeared, and the venue was more successful in breaking through the package. However, as we head into February, more thorny questions arise, and the impact of these events on derbyshire's development is for the next time.