Derby County have been warned about the possibility of losing Louie Sibley in the January transfer window.

What's been said?

In a recent interview with Football Insider, former Derby coach Kevin Phillips stated his belief that Leeds United could look to take advantage of the Rams' perilous financial situation in the winter window, by submitting an offer for the Premier League side's reported long-term target, Louie Sibley.

In his comments, Phillips said: "Unfortunately, when someone is having a tough time there are always predators waiting to jump and take advantage of the situation.

"There is an opportunity now for clubs to sign the good players Derby have got for next to nothing. There will probably be some daft offers going in. Derby will need the money unless they find a buyer by then.

"It's another opportunity for Leeds to sign Louie Sibley. I know him very well and let me tell you he'd be a brilliant signing for them."

Rooney would be gutted

While Sibley has not exactly been in the best of form for Derby so far this season, with the 20-year-old having scored no goals nor registered any assists over his nine Championship appearances, as well as averaging an extremely disappointing SofaScore match rating of just 6.48, the midfielder demonstrated back in the Rams' 2019/20 campaign the sheer amount of talent he truly possesses.

Indeed, over just 11 Championship appearances that term, the £2.7m-rated man scored five goals, registered two assists and created one big chance for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.8 shots and making 0.7 key passes per game.

These returns saw the £1.5k-per-week youngster earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of 6.89, ranking him as Derby's joint eighth-best performer in the second tier that season.

As such, should Phillips indeed be correct in his prediction that the Rams could be forced into selling the England U20 international for a nominal fee this January in order to help balance the club's books, it would undoubtedly be a deal that would leave Wayne Rooney gutted, as losing the midfielder would only make the 35-year-old manager's already near-impossible task of keeping Derby in the Championship more difficult.

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