The Derby County administrators expect that Clowes Developments' takeover of the East Midlands club will be completed today but have indicated that the outstanding matters remaining are out of their control. 

Clowes' bid for Derby was accepted over the weekend and it was previously suggested that the deal would go through yesterday but as has been the case so many times during this process, there has been a delay.

Last night, the club administrators released a statement indicating they expected the takeover to be completed on Thursday.

Via Sky Sports, the statement read: "All parties involved in the sale of the club have been working very hard together since last weekend to complete this extremely complex transaction.

"A small number of outstanding matters remain, and these matters are outside of the control of the joint administrators and Clowes Developments (UK) Limited. It is our expectation that these will be finalised tomorrow, Thursday 30 June, allowing the transaction to complete then.

"The joint administrators would like to reassure staff, players and supporters that they are in receipt of completion monies from Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, and the outstanding issues require a short amount of additional time to be finalised."

The Derby-based property group have already completed the purchase of Pride Park from former owner Mel Morris and have given the East Midlands club a loan to allow them to begin preparations for the 2022/23 League One campaign, which gets underway at the end of next month.

Clowes entered the fray following the breakdown of Chris Kirchner's takeover bid, which looked for long periods as though it was set to be completed before falling through.

The Verdict

Supporters will feel as though they have heard this all before from the administrators but you have to hope that this time things will be different.

It's positive that the expectation is that the takeover will be completed today but the suggestion that it is being held up by a small number of outstanding matters out of their control is a slight concern.

The takeover saga has been a torrid one for the East Midlands club and fans will desperate to see the end of it.

A done deal would certainly be good news for new manager Liam Rosenior, allowing him to properly ramp up preparations for the start of the new season.