Along with the initial fee, the panel decided that a further fee of £250,000 would be payable depending on appearances, £200,000 if Derby County are promoted to the Premier League in the next three years, and a 15 per cent sell-on clause.

Following the tribunal, Tranmere Chairman Lorraine Rogers answered questions from the media.

£725,000 is a lot of money, are you pleased?

"A maximum sum of £725,000 if the player makes all the appearances and Derby get promotion within three years is a significant sum of money for the Club - and based on the number of appearances the player made for Tranmere.

"But the initial guaranteed fee of £275,000 is about the same as our Youth set up costs the Club to run for one year, so in that respect the initial payment isn't that high.

"Also, through the tribunal we discovered what Derby had paid the agent and what signing on fee the player got, and the total up front guaranteed payment to us is not far off the total of those amounts, so from that point of view the initial payment is not that high."

I take it from the way you're speaking that your faith hasn't been brought back to the footballing authorities as you mentioned a couple of weeks ago?

"The aim of the Professional Football Compensation Committee system is not about a establishing a market value, it's about compensation. But I'm not sure £275,000 is fair compensation for six years of effort given that it costs the Club that amount for one year of investment in the youth system. We hope the final payment reaches £725,000."

What does the tribunal take into account?

"The tribunal considers is all the investment made in a player. Steve Davies had been with Tranmere Rovers for six years. When he joined us he had been let go by Liverpool, his confidence was very low and he was questioning whether he was going to have a career in football. Les Parry, Dave Philpotts, Warwick Rimmer, the Board of Directors and many others had known him right the way through that time, and when you think about the investment in the player, not just in terms of football and fitness training, but also pastoral care, and try to quantify it I think it would be considerably higher.

"It creates a big question for the Club - can you continue to invest in youth football if you can't get adequate compensation?

"One feature of this tribunal is that Steve Davies has walked away from the Club, without turning up on the last day as he was expected to do, without having any contact with the Club and without saying anything to the Manager or any of his colleagues. He didn't turn up to the tribunal and just submitted a piece of paper basically saying we didn't do anything for him.

"And I find that really, really sad. This is the same player who has said in previous interviews that when he was let go by Liverpool in 2002 he was thinking of giving up the idea of a career football but Tranmere gave him a future as a professional player.

"It is sad that Steve Davies has turned his back on the Club that has helped him and doesn't appreciate what the Club and fans did to support him."