Bolton 3 points shy of that first place spot. Hoping they can at the very least maintain their current position and secure automatic promotion.
Incredible turnaround for a team that very nearly went bust not that long ago. The fans deserve something to cheer about.
Plus, the club have went through a decade of hardship. The 2011/2012 season was an awful year for Bolton, and that's where it all began. First, Lee Chong-Yong and Stuart Holden were ruled out for the majority of the season, then they were forced to sell one of their best players in Gary Cahill. Then on March 17th, Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch and suffered a cardiac arrest. Thankfully, he survived thanks to the doctors on hand, but that day would mark the last of his football career, as it ultimately led to his retirement. And to cap off that shitty season, Bolton would be relegated from the Prem in the last game of the season after drawing against Stoke City. A game in which Stoke City scored 2 controversial goals.
Bolton started the following season in the Championship League with the largest wage bill thanks to the parachute payments, but Bolton now had a monstrous debt of £110M hanging above their head, most of which was to owed to Eddie Davies. It was very concerning, but Bolton were touted as one of the teams to bounce straight back up, so fans hoped it wouldn’t be too much to worry about.
However, that didn't come to fruition. After languishing in 16th, Owen Coyle was sacked by the club, and was replaced by exciting young Crystal Palace manger, Dougie Freedman. Under Freedman, Bolton surged from 20th to 7th and narrowly missed out on a playoff spot to Leicester on goal difference, leaving fans to ponder what might have been given the team's great run of form at the time.
Failure to return to the Prem on the first time around was detrimental as the club lost a further £50M over the season due to high wages and interest owed to Eddie Davies, with things set to only get worse. In the 2013/2014 season, it was either promotion or bust, but as everyone knows, this too did not happen. Bolton finished the league in 14th. Supporters were again deflated and to make matters worse, the parachute payments were now gone.
Freedman didn’t last much longer, being sacked after a terrible start to the 2014/2015. He would be replaced by Neil Lennon. Now this looked promising....a manager with Champions League experience that had been touted by some higher division teams, had joined the Bolton Wanderers organization. Questions over as to what his wages would be paying him arose, but under his guidance, many felt optimistic about Bolton's chances. The first three months under Lennon saw Bolton rise 10 places from bottom of the league up to 14th. Bolton reached the fourth round of the FA Cup and took on Liverpool. It was a hard-fought 2-1 loss, but unfortunately, that would be the highlight of the season as the Wanderers again pulled well below expectations, with Bolton winning only one of their last 11 games of the season and finishing in 18th place. There were also off-field troubles involving midfielders Neil Danns and Barry Bannan and at the end of the season, the club were forced to sell a vast number of players as well as bring in new blood on the cheap.
Whilst the players and Lennon gave their all, Bolton lay at the bottom of the Championship table after a ghastly 2 wins in 25 league games and were dumped out of the Capital One Cup by League One Burton Albion as well as being held away at National League Eastleigh in the FA Cup. But the problems on the field are shockingly much smaller than those off it as Bolton’s troubles truly bubbled over through the Winter period. These issues included the fact that Lennon was under fire due to allegations made by a former partner of his. The board stated that should the claims be true, he would be fired, but he kept his job following an investigation.
On the financial side of things, debt had been the reaper in the background of Bolton's entire campaign. The near £180M debt reared its ugly head once again and a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs was handed to the club due to unpaid taxes. The players and staff were sadly unpaid in November and only received their pay in the Christmas month. Seemingly everything that possibly could go wrong in regards to funding is happening as Eddie Davies is still owed an insane amount of money, promising takeover talks had been shot down, and a transfer embargo had been imposed upon the team.
Bolton went on a 17-game winless run and Lennon was fired towards the end of the 2015/2016 season. Bolton finished in 24th and were relegated down to League One football. The next season, Phil Parkinson took over as manager. Under him, Bolton were able to win promotion from League One at the first time of asking with a second place finish. With Bolton promoted and the embargo finally lifted, there was a bit of light, but that didn't last. Bolton started their first season back in the Championship rather poorly, only earning their first victory in October. Their form improved mid-season, however Bolton found themselves battling it out to stay out of the relegation zone. They achieved this to finish 21st, narrowly avoiding relegation in the last game of the season against Nottingham Forest by having fought back from 2-1 to win 3-2.
But of course, Bolton once again were facing financial stress. On September 12, 2018, Bolton reached an agreement with their main creditor BluMarble Capital Ltd over an unpaid loan, in order to avoid going into administration and a points deduction from the EFL, only to be served with yet another 2 winding-up petitions later on after failing to make a payment to HM Revenue and Customs. It was the 4th petition the club had faced in the previous 14 months. Then after the collapse of the permanent signing of on-loan striker, Christian Doidge, the Forrest Green Rovers decided to take legal action over lost earnings. And because of course, Bolton were again served a winding-up petition by HMRC, though that was adjourned until the end of the season as the team searched for a new owner continued.
....and speaking of which.
The ownership fiasco:
Where can I even begin with this, because this was an entire shitshow of epic proportions. To put it shortly, Ken Anderson (NOT the wrestler, mind you =P) had a penchant for being petty. Doing things like taking to his Note From The Chairman column to take shots at others, holding grudges against people who criticized him, bragging about how awesome he was, and then there was the shit cherry on top....
Fans had planned a protest for the game on January 21, 2019. They had set to meet at the Nat Lofthouse Statue before the match started, with many voicing strongly their discontent with the state of affairs, and upon the match reaching the 58th minute, the fans would go silent and head for the exits. They would not linger on the concourse, they would not return to the stadium. They would simply leave, giving the Sky cameras a chance to see just how large the protest actually is, and a talking point to take away with them during and after the match. It was also confirmed, to many fans' delight, that Bolton Legend John McGinlay would be joining the protest before and during the match. He stood with the fans and had been very critical of Ken Anderson. The tagline being "Whoever's name is above the door, Whoever holds the key, They'll never own our football club, It belongs to you and me. [Anderson Out]".
So, what does Anderson do in response? He released a statement essentially giving the finger to the fans planning to protest and called out club John McGinlay, but that didn't stop there, oh no. He even went as far as to ban him from the grounds and deny media clearance. Now, there were moronic moves Anderson made before, but this one took the cake. For those not aware, McGinlay is Bolton's second son, he is a legend and an icon. You do not besmirch this man. Nat Lofthouse reigns supreme, but John McGinlay is as close to Lofthouse's status as it gets. For Anderson to ban him in this way is petty. It's wrong, and it's a move that sat off a fanbase that was already frustrated beyond belief. It was the kind of move that showed exactly what sort of character Ken Anderson is. No was backing him, no one was laughing with him. Everyone was sick and tired of his shit.
Now onto the process of the sale itself.
In February of 2019, A deal has been agreed between Ken Anderson and a UK-based consortium led by Mark Warburton, backed by Parminder Basran to purchase BWFC. The deal was pending EFL approval, but it appeared as if it were done and Anderson will be out the door within a matter of days.
Except that didn't happen. Just a couple of days later, the deal that was supposedly "imminent" fell through. On the flip side though, the Basran group decided to come back to the table to resolve the issue that caused the last minute snag the first time around. Fast forward a couple of days later, and the club had been issued....you guessed it, another winding-up petition (their 6th one in the past 16 months). It then came to light that Bolton owed more than £1M to the Bolton City Council for business rates that have not been disclosed by Ken Anderson. Concerns about the immediate future of Bolton financially grew rapidly in spite of takeover talks. Bolton possibly couldn't survive the latest winding up petition, so if they couldn't pay off that debt, the sale of the club would be rendered irrelevant.
With the mess Bolton was in, was it any wonder why buyers were so hesitant on buying the club? They were more inclined to withdraw their bids after learning about the club's financial state and the never-ending debt issues. Every sound businessman or consortium would be asking themselves: "Why should we pay Ken Anderson millions of dollars to take over a skint club with so much unpaid debt when we can purchase the club for next to nothing after they fall into administration?". Well, with the way things were going at this rate, Bolton were looking at the prospect of entering administration. To make things worse, one of Bolton's creditors was Ken Anderson himself, so even when Bolton would get sold or go into administration, he was still on the books to get a payday from it.
To sum it up, the HMRC were taking Bolton to court on March 20th, seeking a winding up petition unless Bolton pays it off first, and the takeover is essentially agreed upon with Parminder Basran's consortium pending the paying off of the Eddie Davies loan, which seemed unlikely. There were also other groups in talks with Bolton, though none of them were as far along as the Basran one. So close and yet, still miles away at the same time. Fun times.
Ken Anderson then later confirmed that Bolton entered into a "period of exclusivity", with Parminder Basran's consortium with a deal to purchase the club agreed in principle. All that was left was to get the deal approved by the EFL and sign the paperwork, which just leaves the cleanup with the Eddie Davies loan, the council tax issues, and the HMRC winding up petition.
But, that too, would end up in disappointment as rumors spread that the deal was on the verge of collapse. Things were looking dire. The odds of a new deal happening were slim to none prior to the winding up hearing. 145 years of history, families bonding, memories forming, passions being shared and friendships being born. The team as we knew it, was in danger of going bust.
So, with the deal on the verge of collapse, and Bolton now considering offering loans to their non-playing staff to get their wages, Ken Anderson closed the training ground at Lostock, and it would remain closed until the club sells, which meant the team couldn't train properly until the club sells. They have access to the Reebok/Macron/UniBOL pitch, but that was it. All of this to save money, because Anderson wasn't willing to put money into the club.
As for the unpaid players at the time, Anderson showed no signs whatsoever of paying players and actually sent a member of his staff to tell them he would pay them by March 11, 2019 if a takeover hadn't happened before then. So, he wasn't going to pay them, the takeover had yet to happen, and players now had the right to file a formal complaint with the EFL to get them involved, plus the Davies family were now considering stepping in, taking over Anderson's shares in the club (his £5M bridge loan from Eddie Davies back in September was taken out against his shares in the club, they had every right to step in and claim them now that his loan is in default, which just screws up the sale even more). All of this bullshit because Anderson wouldn't sign his name on the dotted line for the sale to go through. If that wasn't enough, Anderson's promise to pay the players should a deal not go through fell through, and Bolton had been hit with yet another winding-up petition, with this one being against the hotel for unpaid services.
On March 16, 2019, Basran walked away from the table and the takeover was officially off. The one option that was definitely off of the table, and an adjournment, had been granted to Ken Anderson. Adjourned until April 3rd because a sale is "imminent" with a mystery buyer. At this point, I was sick of reading these stories. It was like, "Where's the sale, Anderson. Where's this so close it's done deal you've been working on? We're all tired of this shit.".
As to who the mystery buyer was, well....this is where crap hit the fan. It was confirmed that Ken Anderson had come to an agreement to transfer the club over to Laurence Bassini. Yes, the very same man who previously ran Watford into the ground. To say I was royally pissed when I saw the news would be an understatement. Anderson could've at least shown some respect for the club and sold it to Basran when the opportunity was available, but instead, he opted to play hardball and then give the fans one big "F you" before leaving the team in the gutter on his way out.
Fortunately, the club never ended up in the hands of Bassini, because as it turned out, Bassini's claims of having the money to purchase the team was all popycock, as he never had the funds to begin with. What happened afterwards was a squabble between Anderson and Bassini, with Bassini claiming he had the funds, but was never asked to prove it, while Anderson said he would pursue other options and even considered the option of putting the club into administration....All of this, while the people that ultimately get affected by it are sitting and wondering just what will happen to the club they sacrifice to support, work hard to spend their money on concessions and gift shop purchases to support, work for nothing at times in order to keep the club operating to support, and spend generations with their families watching the boys in white to support. And yet, here we are....two jackasses squabbling, players protesting, staff going unpaid for months, and we're no closer to answers about why or a genuine solution.
On May 8, 2019, it was official. The club had fallen into administration, and with that happening, Anderson took to his Note From The Chairman column to take shots at Bassini, saying that because of false promises, him not providing the adequate proof, and for wasting time, it left him no other choice but to place the club into administration. It was a scary time seeing the future of the club was in serious jeopardy, but thankfully, there was some light at the end of the tunnel, for Football Ventures were eventually given the nod to purchase the club and Bolton finally had new ownership.
That of course, didn't come without some bumps along the road. Bassini, the windbag, filed an injunction in the high court to stop the sale of Bolton to the Football Ventures Ltd. consortium because he felt he was unfairly cast aside by the administrators. So in order to satisfy his own ego, the sale of Bolton was halted, further delaying the chance for Bolton to sign players, move forward and try to have a decent season because Bassini didn't get his way. Despite Bassini's attempts to sabotage the sale though, they were all rebuked by the administrators while also revealing that since Bassini lost out on the bidding process, he had been sending threatening e-mails and making threatening phone calls to the point they had been handed over to a legal team to be dealt with.
Though that was dealt with, more unfortunate news came when it was announced that the sale of the Bolton Whites Hotel wasn't expected to conclude until another 4-6 weeks, which could throw a bit of a wrench in the ongoing takeover of the club, which was a lot of BS. The administrators for the club got their accounts in order, got the bids out of the way and found a suitable candidate for a football club in such a short time, while the hotel administrators were dawdling around running a simple hotel. Things were about to get serious in 3 weeks and we were going to be fielding academy players. Then it was later confirmed that Bolton's players walked out, asking to cancel their contracts and look elsewhere for football and pay. We were left with only a few players and had to quickly scramble to form a team to field for the upcoming season. As for how the season turned out, battling a points deduction from the EFL and such, Bolton heavily struggled and were relegated to League Two status after finishing dead last.
But since then, things have been looking on the up-and-up, which is nice to see after what was nearly a decade of pain and misery.