Accrington Stanley chairman Andy Holt has suggested that the way money is influencing football has not helped Mel Morris with the situation that has emerged at Derby County.

It was confirmed last month that Derby will be playing alongside Accrington in League One next season, following their relegation from the Championship.

That came in the wake of a 21-point deduction brought about due to the Rams' entering administration, and breaches of EFL profit and sustainability rules by the club, while under the ownership of Morris.

That is something that has inevitably seen Morris come under fire with the position Derby find themselves in, with the future of the club still not secure, as Chris Kirchner looks to complete his propesed takeover to bring the club out of administration.

Now though, it seems Holt believes that the situation Derby find themselves, is not entirely down to Morris, even if the soon to be ex-Derby owner is not blameless in the situation.

Issuing his thoughts on the situation at in a Twitter thread that would go on to discuss the wider implications of money in football, Holt wrote: "Carrying on the thread about parachute payments and not defending Mel Morris, the situation  need not have got so bad and toxic I.M.O

"When we played Derby in the cup (we got beat 1-0 when Dan Barlaser was very harshly sent off) I walked round our ground among home and away fans and chatting to him.

"Many fans present that day will remember seeing us. Mel, knowing Accrington Stanley are operating within our means, said this.. ‘This is how football should be Andy, but it’s impossible to get there, it’s broken’

He went on to describe the purgatory many champ clubs suffer. It opened my eyes. You see Championship clubs lose an average age of £16m per club, per annum, with a very slender hope of ever fixing it.

"To stop losing £16m, they either completely destroy their club and infrastructure and face a relegation or they get promoted to the Premier League.

"Derby had lost £200m and was continuing to lose at a great rate of knots. Derby are a Premier League club all day, but so are many others in this trap."

The Verdict

This is certainly a fasinating insight from Holt.

The Accrington Stanley chairman is one who can often be relied on to give fair and honest assessment of finances in football, and this is no different.

There can be no doubt that Morris does have to come under a great deal of scrutiny for the troubles that Derby are enduring right now, especially the ongoing uncertainty around the future of Pride Park.

However, as Holt points out here, there are issues that make things hard for those who own football clubs at the minute, something which ought to be a concern for fans of plenty of clubs currently plying their trade in the Championship.