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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Sport
Luke Pawley

'Wouldn't surprise me' - Simon Jordan makes shock Mel Morris prediction on Derby County takeover

Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan says he would "not be surprised" if Mel Morris bought back Derby County.

It would be a stunning move if Forest's rivals were bought by their previous owner, who put the club into administration in September. It is now a possibility, Jordan says, because Morris is "controlling all the parts" with his ownership of Pride Park and other properties in London underpinning the Rams' finances.

After saying that, Jordan went on to reassure Derby fans that the club have credible bidders and explained what administrators Quantuma are doing before confirming their preferred bidder. "A lot of football clubs stay in administration for a long time while they're trying to find a buyer," he told talkSPORT.

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"This is probably the most complicated, convoluted purchase because nobody's bought a football club out of administration for beyond £30million. This one's going for £50-60million, so there's a challenge on the level of the finance involved.

"There's also the complexity of who's funding it. Dell are putting the money in to fund the administrator but they're using security Mel Morris has against properties he has in London to be able to underpin it. It wouldn't surprise me if Mel Morris came out of the other side and bought the football club out because he's controlling all the parts including, perhaps, the administrator.

"Anything's possible. I think it unlikely, but it's a possibility. The most important thing for Derby fans to understand is that they've got a credible number of bidders at the table, to such an extent that the administrator is putting them forward to the EFL to make sure there are no delays while they're fine-tuning all the different financial aspects of the deal.

"What they don't want to do is fine-tune it, then put them forward and find out the guy they're fine-tuning it with actually fails the EFL's ideals of what an owner should look like. Because what an owner should look like is a sensitive thing right now, it's going to be even more heightened.

"So what they're doing is making sure everything is smooth so that ultimately, if there are three or four bidders at the table and they all pass the EFL tests, you're in the box seat to be able to resolve it."

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