American businessman Chris Kirchner is favourite to takeover Derby County.

Kirchner withdrew his bid for the Rams in December with administrators Quantuma claiming it fell short of other offers they were expecting for the club.

He then switched his attention to Preston, but they released a statement last week which appeared to rule out Kirchner's takeover as they said they were no longer engaged with "any party".

The Sun says Kirchner is back in the race at Derby who have made him their number one choice to take the club out of administration.

The news will come as a boost to manager Wayne Rooney who spoke to Kirchner before the original proposal fell through and was impressed by the American's "good ideas".

After a month of looking for a takeover at Preston, Kirchner has gone back to Derby after hearing there was a better deal available for the stadium.

The American originally demanded that Mel Morris took less than £20million for the ground.

However, the local council are now in talks to buy the ground and then lease it over to the next owner of the club.