Derby County and the EFL have reached a breakthrough in their settlement of the club's financial breaches, according to the Daily Mail's Mike Keegan.

It is being reported that it has been agreed in principle that the Rams will immediately be deducted nine points, which would take their current tally of Championship points to -2 and root them to the foot of the table.

An extra three points will be taken off in the future should County fall foul of any more financial regulations.

Talks are still ongoing regarding the club's business plan but an agreement of a points deduction looks as though the two parties can finally resolve their issues.

 

 

 

 

And the agreement may see Wayne Rooney be allowed to operate in the transfer market once again with the club heavily restricted this summer in who they could bring in.

Just five new players were allowed to arrive at Pride Park this summer and Rooney could now potentially bring more free agents to the club should an official settlement be reached.

The Verdict

This is definitely progress but it isn't the outcome that Rams fans would have wanted to hear.

Something needed to happen though and it was obvious that Derby were going to be punished in some way as the EFL were very clear in their stance that the original sanctions were not enough.

On the pitch, Derby have started the season quite well so this will be a really big blow but it's one that you assume the players knew may be coming.

They seem like a determined bunch though and their efforts cannot be questioned so far this season, so this will more-than likely spur them on to overturn the adversity as soon as possible.