David Clowes says Derby County were a week away from going bust when he took ownership of the club.
The lifelong Rams supporter positioned himself as Derby’s “very, very last resort” after a number of failed takeover attempts saw them spend 282 days in administration, suffer a points deduction and relegation from the Championship.
He was taking the bins out on a Monday morning in March 2022 when he got the phone call that first convinced him to get involved in trying to save the club, with a frantic bid pulled together in 17 days in June to complete the takeover.
“I think if we hadn’t taken over, in another week it would have gone,” Clowes told BBC Radio Derby. “That’s how serious it was.”
In a rare interview, Clowes has marked the anniversary of his high-profile purchase by talking about:
- Why the property developer came in with a club-saving deal
- The end of former Derby owner Mel Morris’ involvement
- His support for chief executive Stephen Pearce
- What it was like as a fan to stand by and see the club struggle financially
- How he never got the chance to try to convince Wayne Rooney to stay to rebuild the side
- And why failing to get promoted last season is not seen as a failure
Ending Morris speculation
When Clowes announced that he had bought the Rams’ Pride Park home ground on 24 June 2022, the prominent Derbyshire property developer’s deal did not come as a shock.
The accompanying bid to go it alone to also take the club out of administration, however, was a surprise to many.
He explained that “only about four people knew” what he was doing, although he added that his friends and family saw him swooping in as “inevitable”.
Rumours that Morris – the former club and stadium owner, who placed Derby into administration in September 2021 – has remained involved in the background have persisted since Clowes’ interest first emerged.
When asked if he could end the speculation, Clowes replied: “Yes, he (Morris) has no connection with the football club whatsoever.”
When pressed to comment on Morris’ time at the club and the perilous state he left the Rams in, Clowes would not elaborate.
He did, however, reiterate his support for CEO Pearce, who was recruited by Morris in 2018, was in the role when the club sold its stadium to the then owner, and controversially changed its accounting procedures – a move that eventually saw the club hit with a points penalty for breaches of English Football League rules.
Clowes said he even stuck by Pearce when “three chief execs from other clubs” got in touch with him about the position when he first took over.
“There was a thinking that when we took over the football club he would be the first person out the door, but I didn’t see it that way,” Clowes continued.
“Stephen came to see me just before we acquired the club, we had a good chat for quite a few hours. He told me about the past and how he sees the club going forward. I saw qualities in Stephen, he is a good operator, he knows the club inside out.
“He has a story to tell but in his own time. He has unfinished business with Derby and he will tell you that himself.”
March convinces Clowes to come forward
And yet it was in Pearce’s first year at Pride Park as chief executive that Derby signed midfielder Krystian Bielik from Arsenal for a deal worth £10m in 2019 – a move that Clowes admitted had him thinking about the Rams’ financial future.
“That was a surprise to me,” he said. “I thought they must know what they are doing.
“But I think when you spend that sort of money, then you are going to cause yourself a lot of problems, especially if you don’t get promoted.”
The riches of the Premier League, however, were not reached – with their play-off final defeat by Aston Villa earlier that same year the closest they came before a dramatic collapse saw them go into administration and suffer relegation three years later.
Clowes said he did not sleep the night the Rams went into administration.
“I was thinking in my own mind, ‘do I look at this?’,” he recalled.
He was still a commercial airline pilot when his father, Charles, came within one meeting of becoming a stakeholder in the club two decades earlier.
It was not until he took to the streets of Derby with about 10,000 fellow supporters for their march in support of the club in January 2022 that Clowes felt he would have to act.
“That is when I started really thinking about ‘do I seriously have a look at this?’ And not just the stadium, but the whole club.”
And yet it was the chance to buy the stadium, a deal worked in conjunction with American Chris Kirchner, that he first saw as “a good investment”.
Clowes takeover ‘purely to save club’
Clowes said he had the deal for Pride Park “good to go” but would not sign before Kirchner brought the club out of administration.
When he unsuccessfully pressed to get it signed off – with delays transferring money internationally used as an excuse by the American, who has since had fraud charges brought against him in the US – Clowes went ahead with a last-ditch takeover attempt of his own.
Asked if he was surprised that Kirchner eventually dropped out, Clowes replied: “We expected it.
“What we did before it was announced was go to [administrators] Quantuma, signed an NDA [non-disclosure agreement], got access to the data and looked at the whole story.
“People ask why I did it. It was purely to save the football club, no more. There is no ego with me. I’m passionate about Derby County – it means everything to me.
“It was a no-brainer that we got involved.”
Rooney’s exit on day Clowes arrives
When Clowes emerged as the most likely to save Derby, former England captain Wayne Rooney quit as manager, having previously spoken out in support of Kirchner’s attempted takeover.
It was a high-profile loss for a club that needed a rebuild, having had only five first-team players on their books at the time.
“We never had the opportunity to speak to Wayne or his agent Paul Stretford, because he had the meeting at the club the same day that we were announced as the preferred bidder,” Clowes recalled. “I knew that meeting was going to take place and it was 50-50 whether Wayne was going to stay or not.”
Throughout administration, Rooney was the public face of the club and was often called upon to comment on off-field matters.
“That is probably why he needed the fresh start somewhere else,” Clowes said.
“It must have been very difficult. He didn’t know if he was coming or going, nobody did. No-one knew what the future held for the club.”
Rooney’s assistant, Liam Rosenior was called up as interim boss and put in charge of assembling a side without a transfer budget.
‘Going again’ under League One ‘King’
Paul Warne, who had taken Rotherham up from League One for the third time in 2022, was Clowes’ number one managerial target from the outset.
It was not until September that the Rams got the man they “nickname the King of League One”, having had a initial attempt to lure him from the Millers rejected earlier in the summer.
“Once we knew there was an opportunity that we could speak to Paul, we just had to go down that path,” Clowes said.
“We knew there was a lot of interest in him from other clubs, Championship clubs, and I thought ‘if we don’t get in here we will miss the boat’.
“His proven record, three promotions, his man management, his empathy, just ticked every single box.”
Warne was not able to make it four promotions from his four seasons in the third tier, with Derby slipping out of the play-off spots on the final day of the regular season to finish seventh in the table.
Clowes insisted the campaign “was all about stability” for a club returning from the brink.
But he was quick to add that having their transfer embargo lifted by the EFL at the end of the season now means he has the opportunity to bankroll a bid to get Derby back to the Championship.
“I always thought if we got promoted [last season] it would be a bonus,” Clowes said.
“Paul has been given a budget, I think a good budget for League One that is good enough to get us out of the league. But it’s football and nothing is guaranteed.”
