Liverpool and Manchester United targeting Derby forward Kaide Gordon; Championship side understood to want more than £2m for 16-year-old; Derby expected to sell academy talent to ease financial troubles
Friday 15 January 2021 10:14, UK
Derby's highly-prized 16-year-old forward Kaide Gordon looks set to leave the club in the next fortnight, with both Liverpool and Manchester United closely monitoring his situation.
Wayne Rooney has been hugely impressed with the versatile U16 England international and gave him his Championship debut as a substitute in Derby's 4-0 victory at Birmingham in December.
Derby are believed to have already turned down offers of around £1m for Gordon and value him at more than twice that figure.
They also expect his value will increase substantially as he progresses and will demand a sizeable sell-on fee if a sale is concluded.
Described by one Premier League scout as "the best 16-year-old in England right now", Gordon is predominantly an attacker who can operate through the middle or out wide.
"I brought Kaide up with the first-team initially to train with us for a week to see how he reacted to it, and he was one of the best trainers," Rooney said after Gordon's debut.
"I kept him with us for a couple of weeks and he's been training at the same level - if not to a better level - than a lot of the other [first-team] players."
Derby are involved in a protracted takeover saga and a number of the club's Moor Farm Academy players are expected to be sold over the next fortnight to raise the funds needed to keep the club running.
Sky Sports News has been told that - even though Derby's most senior players have not received a penny of their salaries since the end of November - club officials are confident those overdue wages will be paid in full in the next few days.
Derby chief executive Stephen Pearce has insisted there are no problems with the takeover of the club by Dubai-based Derventio Holdings and that the financial issues are just a matter of unfortunate timing.
However, a further potential problem for Derby is that, in their current plight, they are unlikely to qualify for the rescue loans offered by the Premier League following the coronavirus pandemic.
This could be a serious issue if there are any further delays in the money coming forward from Sheikh Khaled's consortium.
Any Championship club in financial difficulty this season is entitled to claim up to £8.3m in loans, which must be paid back by 2024. But the small print in the rules says that the EFL will deny any application from a club which is currently - or likely to be - in breach of the EFL rules.
Any club which fails to pay its players could be in breach of those regulations. While Derby await a resolution in the takeover saga, it is thought Morris is still funding the club to the tune of £7m a month.
The EFL will not comment on confidential financial or takeover issues at its member clubs but has confirmed it is working with the Professional Footballers' Association in trying to address the issues at Derby.
The winter transfer window is open until Monday, February 1 at 11pm.
Follow all the news and analysis on Sky Sports News and across Sky Sports' digital platforms, including our dedicated Transfer Centre blog.
