Former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley confirms interest in buying Derby

Businessman has contacted administrators after preferred bidder misses deadline

Mike Ashley remains interested in buying Derby County. PA

Mike Ashley has contacted Derby’s administrators to confirm he retains an interest in the club.

American businessman Chris Kirchner, named as the preferred bidder in April, failed to meet Friday’s deadline to show he was in a position to complete his deal to buy the club.

Former Newcastle owner Ashley has written to Derby’s administrators Quantuma, via his lawyers, saying he “remains willing and ready to transact”.

Kirchner’s failure to prove he had the funds in place to complete the takeover prompted Quantuma to announce on Thursday that they were “continuing discussions with other interested parties”.

Ashley first showed interest in buying Derby in October after he had sold Newcastle, but he made clear in his letter to Quantuma that he did not want “to be treated as a contingency measure and would require some form of security” before resuming possible takeover talks.

Quantuma said on Friday that Kirchner had still not given up on completing his deal.

The administrators said in a statement: “Further to our update (on Thursday) evening, and despite the best efforts of the parties, Mr Kirchner has, as of yet, not provided us with satisfactory evidence that he is in a position to complete the acquisition of the club – albeit he continues to work on this.

“The joint administrators are continuing discussions with other interested parties. Contrary to reports in the media today, no interested party has been excluded from these discussions.”

The English Football League said on Friday that it had serious concerns over Derby’s future and called on Quantuma to show how they planned to take the club out of administration.

The EFL, which had given conditional approval to Kirchner’s ownership, said: “As previously communicated, the League is incredibly frustrated at the time it is taking to conclude this sale.”

Derby were relegated from the Championship last season having been docked 21 points over their financial problems.