“We have the best finances in the Championship” says Ken

Bolton owner Ken Anderson says the club "probably" have the best finances in the Championship despite a winding-up petition over unpaid taxes.

The order was issued by HM Revenue & Customs last Thursday but Anderson says the money owed will be paid this week.

The Trotters avoided administration in September after ex-owner Eddie Davies' £5m loan four days before his death.

"I don't think it [finances] is a mess at all - I think it's a big improvement on where it was," Anderson said.

Has football moved on from the financial Wild West?
He told BBC Radio Manchester: "I would say that the club is probably in the best financial position of any club in the Championship."

The money from Davies was used to pay off Bolton's main creditor, BluMarble Capital Ltd, who had rejected a first repayment offer.

Anderson said two parties interested in investing in Bolton have provided proof of funds, including an American consortium.

"The right offer is the offer that means, going forward, the club is debt-free," said Anderson, who has been told the club is worth £30m.

"There [would be] investment there to bring in new players, help us compete and try and get back into the Premier League."

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If any of this is true let's hope Ken pockets the cash and walks out, keeping Ken means keeping Parkinson and this bit becomes irrelevant ("There [would be] investment there to bring in new players, help us compete and try and get back into the Premier League.") there's no way Parkinson could compete at the top money or not.

MartinBWFC wrote:If any of this is true let's hope Ken pockets the cash and walks out, keeping Ken means keeping Parkinson and this bit becomes irrelevant ("There [would be] investment there to bring in new players, help us compete and try and get back into the Premier League.") there's no way Parkinson could compete at the top money or not.

Is Ken in LA LA LAND ?

MartinBWFC wrote:If any of this is true let's hope Ken pockets the cash and walks out, keeping Ken means keeping Parkinson and this bit becomes irrelevant ("There [would be] investment there to bring in new players, help us compete and try and get back into the Premier League.") there's no way Parkinson could compete at the top money or not.

But the Cowley brothers definitely could of course. Because Martin wants saw them in a cup run on TV and is that easily swayed.

Great news if the latest winding up orders will be paid off. Don’t know how I feel about the tactic from Ken, seems risky but so long as he keeps paying them off I suppose.

T.R.O.Y wrote:Great news if the latest winding up orders will be paid off. Don’t know how I feel about the tactic from Ken, seems risky but so long as he keeps paying them off I suppose.

I can't confirm the truth of this but I read a comment following Mr Anderson's various meetings with the fans before Saturdays game, that in reply to a question he replied that he had to delay the paying of HMRC to this week because the BluMarble loan was the priority to pay first.

It seemed plauseable to me and doesn't seem that he deliberately tried to play hardball with the taxman like he seems to do with (with considerable success it seems too) with other contractors (many of which predate his arrival at the club).

Having now had time to catch up more on events today, I can confirm that Mr Anderson did indeed say this - see his latest statement today here -

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Was it 2 or 3 weeks ago that Ken put out a statement saying the club was facing imminent administration?
But now we have the best finances in the Championship.
Ok Ken.

I don't have too many issues with Ken's wheeling and dealing to keep us going but it's time he sold up, made a few quid and let someone with real finances come in and run the club.

Sluffy wrote:

T.R.O.Y wrote:Great news if the latest winding up orders will be paid off. Don’t know how I feel about the tactic from Ken, seems risky but so long as he keeps paying them off I suppose.

I can't confirm the truth of this but I read a comment following Mr Anderson's various meetings with the fans before Saturdays game, that in reply to a question he replied that he had to delay the paying of HMRC to this week because the BluMarble loan was the priority to pay first.

It seemed plauseable to me..

So the claim is that he only had sufficient money to pay off one of the debts and not both - and then the money for the HMRC magically appeared during the last week?

Must have sold a helluva lot of shirts at the Blackburn game.

Or is he saying that the Accounts department are only capable of writing one cheque a week?

I'd take everything he says with a pinch of salt especially the current valuation of the club seeing as all the assets have loans secured against them.

If on field results continue "We will have the best finances in League 1"  so Ken will be right about somat.