John Terry revelation emerges as Derby County takeover takes another twist

John Terry reportedly threw his hat in the ring for the vacant Derby County job, prior to Wayne Rooney landing the role.

Former England and Chelsea skipper Terry was working as assistant manager at Premier League side Aston Villa at the time.

Championship side Derby were the subject of a takeover at the back end of 2020, with the Bin Zayed Group largely expected to push through a deal.

But it eventually collapsed and Rooney, who was in interim charge, was handed the permanent reins not long after.

The Athletic claim that Terry, who left his role as Dean Smith's number two at Villa in the summer, was also interested in the recent vacancies at both Bournemouth and Bristol City.

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It is claimed he was overlooked for both posts due to a lack of experience.

With regards the Derby job, the report states that Terry declared a willingness to become the new Derby boss when the Bin Zayed Group were attempting to buy the club earlier this year.

But they claim Terry, 41, missed out on an interview due to a lack of experience and the calibre of rival candidates.

Speaking about his managerial ambitions in the summer, Terry said after leaving Villa Park : "My immediate plan is to spend some quality time with my family and, thereafter, hopefully take up some invitations to visit clubs and managers around Europe to develop my aim and objective of becoming a manager.

"It has always been my ambition to move into football management and, providing the right opportunity presents itself, I feel ready to take up such a challenge."

Rooney will shortly celebrate his first anniversary since being made permanent Rams' boss.

And in that time he has had more to endure than most managers go through in ten years in the job.

The aforementioned botched takeover preceded a wretched end to the 2020-21 season, when Derby only stayed up on the final day of the season.

A tumultuous summer followed with the club placed under a transfer embargo. That restricted Rooney's recruitment and he was only able to draft in free agents.

The club were then hit with not one but two points deductions - totalling 21 points - due to entering administration and a breach of financial rules.

Meanwhile, regarding the club's long-running takeover saga there have been fresh updates over the Christmas period.

American businessman Chris Kirchner pulled out of the running to buy the Pride Park club.

At present there are reportedly two parties in the race to acquire control.

This week, administrators Quantuma said they were hoping to name their current preferred bidder "imminently".

The statement said: "We can confirm that, as has been widely reported both on social media and other media outlets, that Mr Kirchner has withdrawn his interest in acquiring the club.

"We would like to put on record our thanks to Mr Kirchner and his team for engaging in the process.

"However, as we have made very clear throughout this process, the issues we are having to deal with are complex and we simply were not in a position to accept Mr Kirchner's bid as it did not meet the level of other bids received.

"Whilst we will not be engaging in any social media communications, we have seen some of the tweets exchanged yesterday between Mr Kirchner and others, and would like to put on record that we disagree with much that has been said.

"Whilst yesterday was a difficult time, it provided a stimulus to one of the remaining bidders who increased his offer for the club.

"We expect to name preferred bidder status imminently.

"We repeat that we are moving as quickly as possible to achieve a sale of the club."

On the pitch, Rooney's side secured a shock 1-0 win over high-flying West Brom on Monday, thanks to Colin Kazim-Richards' fortuitous second half goal.

Despite the fine win, the gap to safety is still 14 points.