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Dougie Freedman believes financial meltdown at Wanderers was on the cards after the club failed to make the play-offs in 2013.
The former boss, now at the helm of Championship rivals Nottingham Forest, has pitched into the ongoing crisis at the Macron Stadium, claiming he foresaw the problems after failing to land top targets soon after his arrival.
Freedman, who left Bolton last October after a stormy two-year spell, witnessed a string of potential signings fall by the wayside and reckons the issues stem back to failing to beat Blackpool on the final day of the 2012/13 campaign, which would have sealed a place in the top six.
“When I first went there, I tried to buy Danny Ings for £1.2m. But we couldn’t get the money together,” he said.
“That prompted a huge amount of suspicion for me. Given that it was a side that had just come down.
“The day we missed out on the play-offs – when Leicester got in there on the final day.
“I knew we were in big trouble after that; it was a club in decline and this was coming.”
Freedman moved on some big names such as Martin Petrov, Kevin Davies and Sam Ricketts during his first 12 months but in doing so, claims to have prevented the current financial meltdown happening sooner.
“There were huge earners there and it was a difficult job to deal with,” he said.
“You could not quite explain to people what you were trying to do. But there were players there who were on huge amounts of money.
“If we did not move some of them on, we could have gone under.
“It has just caught them up now, because they have not had enough assets to balance things out. They have been caught out.”
Many have criticised the financial management of the club since it toppled our of the Premier League, with Phil Gartside coming under particularly heavy fire.
Freedman sought to protect the chairman, who is currently seriously ill, and hopes that he and Wanderers make a full recovery from their current problems.
“I would defend Phil Gartside to the hilt, because he made some difficult decisions and he was trying work things out,” he added.
“He has been unwell and I hope he recovers and that the club is bought and can get through these difficult times.”
Source
The former boss, now at the helm of Championship rivals Nottingham Forest, has pitched into the ongoing crisis at the Macron Stadium, claiming he foresaw the problems after failing to land top targets soon after his arrival.
Freedman, who left Bolton last October after a stormy two-year spell, witnessed a string of potential signings fall by the wayside and reckons the issues stem back to failing to beat Blackpool on the final day of the 2012/13 campaign, which would have sealed a place in the top six.
“When I first went there, I tried to buy Danny Ings for £1.2m. But we couldn’t get the money together,” he said.
“That prompted a huge amount of suspicion for me. Given that it was a side that had just come down.
“The day we missed out on the play-offs – when Leicester got in there on the final day.
“I knew we were in big trouble after that; it was a club in decline and this was coming.”
Freedman moved on some big names such as Martin Petrov, Kevin Davies and Sam Ricketts during his first 12 months but in doing so, claims to have prevented the current financial meltdown happening sooner.
“There were huge earners there and it was a difficult job to deal with,” he said.
“You could not quite explain to people what you were trying to do. But there were players there who were on huge amounts of money.
“If we did not move some of them on, we could have gone under.
“It has just caught them up now, because they have not had enough assets to balance things out. They have been caught out.”
Many have criticised the financial management of the club since it toppled our of the Premier League, with Phil Gartside coming under particularly heavy fire.
Freedman sought to protect the chairman, who is currently seriously ill, and hopes that he and Wanderers make a full recovery from their current problems.
“I would defend Phil Gartside to the hilt, because he made some difficult decisions and he was trying work things out,” he added.
“He has been unwell and I hope he recovers and that the club is bought and can get through these difficult times.”
Source
