Wayne Rooney is expected to stay at Derby County, despite the club going into administration.
The Athletic is reporting that the former Manchester United captain will stay at the club and “ride out the storm.”
A source told The Athletic: “This doesn’t change anything with him.
“He said to the lads ahead of the Stoke game that he wasn’t going to leave them in the trenches.
“He said he’ll fight with them and stand up for them. He said he could’ve walked weeks ago but this is very important to him.”
Rooney has been in charge of Derby since November 2020, when he was appointed as caretaker manager before taking the reigns permanently in January the following year, winning 12 games in the process to help the club avoid relegation to League 1 last season. A league that has not seen the likes of Derby since 1986.
However, despite The Rams’ decent start to the Championship season which sees them sitting in 12th place with 10 points from eight games, whether or not they are relegated looks like it will be taken out of their hands by the EFL.
In accordance with EFL rules, Derby will be hit with a 12-point deduction for going into administration.
In addition, Derby will be hit with a further nine-point deduction as part of an agreement with the EFL for breaches of Championship financial fair play rules.
This means they will be hit with a total points deduction of 21 and they will also face the challenge of clearing £50m in debts and taxes, with the tax bill alone set to be £30m.
The situation at Derby is very bleak, and one can only hope that English Football does not repeat some very recent history in losing one of its historic footballing institutions.