When a takeover deal for Chesterfield FC could be completed by

Chesterfield FC Community Trust “entered into a period of exclusivity” with Spireites owner Dave Allen on December 30 and a deal was expected to be completed in the next four to six weeks.

But Chesterfield FC company secretary, Ashley Carson, has said it is possible that the new owners could be in charge by the Wrexham match at the Proact on February 8.

“We set a backstop date of February 14,” Carson told BBC Radio Sheffield.

“We now believe they have got extra man-power within the Trust to do everything they need to do and, at worse case for me, I would like to see the Wrexham game on February 8 as the new regime taking over.

“I think that will be a great time to do it.

“Dave Allen would like to have it completed by the end of January.

“If that is possible we will do everything we can to do that.

“I think it is do-able.

“I think at the end of the day it is all down to the Trust to get everything done from their point of view, to get the paperwork done and obviously get the funding in place which is the most important thing but the rest of it is all pretty straight forward.

“There is not a lot of things to be done and everybody in the background is ready, our lawyers are ready with paperwork, their lawyers have started putting everything together as well so I would really like to see that we get it done by the end of January.

“We are all working towards that so fingers crossed.”

Carson also said he thinks the Trust is “only a couple of days away now from completing all their due diligence”.

When asked by BBC Radio Sheffield if the Trust has the funds in place to run the club long-term, Carson said: “I think only the Trust can answer that question but from what they have seen – and they have seen absolutely everything – they believe that they can, there is obviously going to be some adjustments at the end of the season.

“The wages for the players are fixed at the moment but going forward I presume that they will look at a different budget for the team going forward into next season.

“We have obviously got the manager to address and I think the wages that will be paid out to a new manager will be substantially less than what we were paying John Sheridan so I would say there is a lot of room for manoeuvere within in the overheads and wages going forward.”

And Carson revealed that a financial package with previous manager John Sheridan has not been finalised yet.

“At the moment we are still working through that with John, it has not been finalised,” he added. “He (Sheridan) has had a week of quiet to reflect on things himself but it has not been finally sorted out yet.“