Derby County manager Phillip Cocu is one of a number of former players making up a consortium looking into purchasing another club, a report from The Daily Mirror has claimed.

Cocu took over at Derby County back in the summer of 2019, and has guided them to 12th in the current Championship table, six points adrift of the play-off places with nine games of the season still to be played at some point.

Now it seems as though Cocu is also looking into other ventures, with the latest reports claiming that the Rams boss has joined the likes of former Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp, Celtic legend Henrik Larsson, ex-Liverpool attacker Dirk Kuyt, and current Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman in forming a consortium with the view to buying an English-based club.

Dutch agent Ron Jansen, an executive at marketing giants Wasserman Media Group, is behind the idea for the project, and explaining the thought process behind the deal, Jansen said: “We are in the waiting room, as we call it. In this crisis (the current suspension of the football season), the asking price of some clubs will be lowered.

“At the same time the internal -struggles at these clubs will get bigger.”

Indeed, it seems the group have been close to a takeover deal before, with Jansen going on to reveal: “Recently we were very close to a deal. I am not going to say now which club that was, but at the very last moment we were beaten by a foreign investor.

“That was very disappointing.”

It is thought that any deal that does go through will be financed by the likes of Cocu and Bergkamp themselves, although it remains to be seen exactly which they club they might look to purchase when they move to secure the takeover.

Cocu signed a four-year deal with Derby last summer, securing his future at the club until the end of the 2022/23 season.

The Verdict

This is an interesting one.

Given his commitments to Derby at the minute, Cocu's involvement here could present something of a problem for the takeover of another English club, considering the risk of a conflict of interest that could arise.

However, when you look at the financial difficulty that so many clubs are facing as a result of the season's suspension, it is actually encouraging to see those within the game looking to do something that could keep clubs in business, meaning that possible conflict of interest for Cocu could be the lesser of two evils here.