Hossam Ghaly is keen to play for a Premiership club next season, but has no problems to stay with relegated Derby County if no offers came for him. The Egyptian midfielder, who is on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, has already revealed his reluctance to play for the London club anymore. Besides that, Ghaly's recent displays for Derby prompted manager Paul Jewell to try keeping the 27-year-old at Pride Park. However, Jewell indicated that playing for the Rams in the Championship comes as a second option for the former Ahli man. "I have spoken to Hossam 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. "But I'm not going to wait forever, 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." Highest Level Despite his hopes to sign Ghaly on permanent basis, the Derby boss respected the Egypt international's ambitions to compete at the 'highest level'. "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," said the former Wigan coach. "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."
