Paul Jewell has revealed on loan midfielder Hossam Ghaly is unlikely to remain at Derby next season.
Relegation set to trigger Egyptian's exit
Derby boss Paul Jewell has revealed on loan midfielder Hossam Ghaly is unlikely to remain at Pride Park next season.
The Egyptian midfielder has been one of few players to come out of the campaign with any credit after Derby's inevitable relegation to the Championship was confirmed in March.
Despite having two years remaining on his contract with current club Tottenham, Ghaly has already been told he has no future there under Juande Ramos.
Jewell has expressed his desire to keep hold of as many players as possible in an attempt to make a speedy return to the top flight; however the Rams boss admits the chances of Ghaly staying at Pride Park are slim.
Terrific
"I have spoken to Hossam Ghaly and quite understandably Hossam wants to stay in the Premier League," Jewell said.
"But if there aren't any Premier League clubs who take him then he is very happy to come to Derby - the way he has played in the last couple of games has been terrific.
"He is on loan until the end of the season and he wants to keep his options open, I don't blame him for that.
"He has shown Premier League quality in the last three or four matches. He lost his way a little bit at Tottenham and at least we have given him a vehicle to show what he can do.
"Hopefully we will be in the running to get him because we would like to keep him, there's no doubt about that."
Response
However, Jewell will not be left waiting for a response from the Egyptian as he plans to devise a quick-fix strategy to ensure Derby's stay outside the top flight is as brief as possible.
"I'm not going to wait forever," he added.
"I spoke to Hoss about that, he's aware of the situation. We don't even know if we can do a deal with Tottenham yet.
"All I wanted to do was say to the boy 'are you willing to come to play for Derby in the Championship?'
"The answer was yes, but understandably, if he can stay in the Premier League - and that's no slight on Derby because he knows what a big club this is and the future is bright - he wants to stay at the highest level.
"I would be disappointed if any players didn't want to play at the highest level."
