be out "long-term", with speculation that Davies, whose contract was due to expire at the end of the season, had played his last game for the club. Despite the injury to Davies leaving Derby short at centre-back, Rooney made it clear that the primary target for the upcoming January transfer window would be a striker, saying "The striker area we need to add to. Colin (Kazim-Richards) has come, and he's been great. If we can add one or two more in that position it would only benefit the team in the long run." One potential signing was Leeds United's Tyler Roberts, though Leeds informed Derby that any deal would require Leeds bringing someone in first. Looking ahead to the January transfer window, it was also revealed that out of favour defender Mike te Wierik, who has not featured since October, had been told he was free to find another club and that Jayden Mitchell-Lawson would return from his loan spell at Bristol Rovers early after a managerial change left him out of the first team. The proposed £60 million takeover by Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan's Derventio Holdings, which had been ratified by the EFL the previous month, still remained uncompleted as of mid-December, resulting in doubts over the deal after it emerged Zayed Al Nahyan owed Newcastle United £500k in legal bills from previous takeover discussions. This led to the club, who had been silent on the takeover progress for six weeks, issuing a statement that discussions were on track, with the aim of a finish before Christmas which, ultimately, did not happen. The continued delay with the takeover had the knock-on effect of players wage payments being delayed leading into the new year. For their performances during December, Nathan Byrne, Matt Clarke, Krystian Bielik and Colin Kazim-Richards were all names in the WhoScored.com Championship Team of the Month. Bielik was also nominated for Sky Bet Championship Player of the Month. January Derby opened 2021 with a 1–0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday which saw The Owls leapfrog Derby in the table, who dropped back into the bottom three, albeit with a game in hand on a number of the teams around them. In the days following the game, Derby closed their training ground, as did Sheffield Wednesday, after "several players" were found to have contracted COVID-19. Although there had been concerns that the outbreak would affect the FA Cup