ZAKKY
Vital Football Hero
If you thought a 6-0 trouncing at Hull City on New Years’ Day meant a bad start to 2019 for Bolton Wanderers then you may want to stop reading now. Because a rollercoaster of doom has trumped it just three days later, in a series of bad news stories that the plot-writers of Dream Team would deem too unrealistic to befall the fictional Harchester United (credit editor Eddie for that reference).
Firstly, this morning Wanderers fans woke up to news that a trio of players - Christian Doidge, Remi Matthews and Gary O’Neil - are unlikely to be available for tomorrow’s FA Cup clash with Walsall due to a “registration embargo.”
The EFL has blocked the availability of Doidge and Matthews - who joined in the summer on loan deals from Forest Green Rovers and Norwich City respectively, with the agreement that permanent moves and transfer fees would be completed in January - and O’Neil - who was on a short-term contract until the start of January - due to the fact that the club owes money to at least one football creditor. In theory, the trio won’t be available for selection until the debt to said creditor is paid off.
And that brings us nicely onto the next bombshell, as The Times reported that Bolton’s players’ wages in November and December were paid by the PFA - contrary to club owner Ken Anderson’s previous claim that he had “personally funded” the players’ wages.
This article also references that the £5 million loan paid to Anderson by previous owner Eddie Davies to save the club from the latest HMRC winding-up petition “must be repaid in March.” Considering we’re struggling to not only pay our players but also pay the agreed fees for Doidge and Matthews, that pending repayment seems highly unlikely.
Next in the conveyor belt of misery was the revelation that The Bolton Whites Hotel - the hotel on the site of the University of Bolton Stadium - has been issued a winding-up petition by HMRC. Further details of this, and how it may affect the football club, are currently unknown.
Firstly, this morning Wanderers fans woke up to news that a trio of players - Christian Doidge, Remi Matthews and Gary O’Neil - are unlikely to be available for tomorrow’s FA Cup clash with Walsall due to a “registration embargo.”
The EFL has blocked the availability of Doidge and Matthews - who joined in the summer on loan deals from Forest Green Rovers and Norwich City respectively, with the agreement that permanent moves and transfer fees would be completed in January - and O’Neil - who was on a short-term contract until the start of January - due to the fact that the club owes money to at least one football creditor. In theory, the trio won’t be available for selection until the debt to said creditor is paid off.
And that brings us nicely onto the next bombshell, as The Times reported that Bolton’s players’ wages in November and December were paid by the PFA - contrary to club owner Ken Anderson’s previous claim that he had “personally funded” the players’ wages.
This article also references that the £5 million loan paid to Anderson by previous owner Eddie Davies to save the club from the latest HMRC winding-up petition “must be repaid in March.” Considering we’re struggling to not only pay our players but also pay the agreed fees for Doidge and Matthews, that pending repayment seems highly unlikely.
Next in the conveyor belt of misery was the revelation that The Bolton Whites Hotel - the hotel on the site of the University of Bolton Stadium - has been issued a winding-up petition by HMRC. Further details of this, and how it may affect the football club, are currently unknown.
