Ken Anderson - update.

DEAN Holdsworth has accused fellow Wanderers owner Ken Anderson of withholding key information about the running of the club.

A war of words has developed between the two major shareholders, who completed their takeover at the Macron last March.

Anderson has released a flurry of statements in recent weeks to outline his position on varying financial matters but on Wednesday morning claimed the club had been left with “no alternative” but to sell star player Zach Clough to Nottingham Forest for £2.5million because Holdsworth had refused to contribute funds on a pro-rata basis.

Holdsworth responded to his accusations with his own statement, issued on his Sports Shield company website.

“It is with regret that I have to respond yet again to allegations which are misleading and without foundation,” he wrote.

“In a statement made by Ken Anderson, he alleges that I am to blame for the sale of Zach Clough – this is untrue. The sale of Zach Clough was never even brought to my attention prior to the sale – it happened without any communication to me and was not brought to the attention of, nor approved by, the Board.

“Ken Anderson made that decision, and negotiated the terms of the deal alone. I had no involvement in the sale. Unfortunately, for many months I have been excluded from management business including negotiations about players.

“Ken’s allegation that I have refused to contribute funds to the club is also untrue. I have not refused to pay, but am unwilling to advance funds until I receive the proper financial information required for me to make financial investment into the club.

“That critical financial information has been withheld from me by Ken Anderson.”

Anderson has detailed how he used “personal funds” to pay salary runs for players and staff in the last couple of months as cash-flow concerns started to emerge.

Holdsworth has countered today by claiming the chairman has taken back all the money he put in.

“It is worth noting that when Ken has provided funds to the club, he has withdrawn those funds as soon as cash-flow has allowed, without prior approval of the Board.

“The significant delays in completing the audit and the filing of the Burnden Leisure Limited accounts, together with Mr Anderson’s previous issues in his role as a company director, in my opinion, together give rise to concern about Ken’s management of the club.”

Holdsworth has stayed largely silent as rumours of boardroom issues circled the Macron – but the former striker said he was compelled to answer the latest comments from the chairman.

“The fact is that Ken Anderson and I are in dispute over a number of matters,” he said. “For the benefit of the club and the supporters, I have been keen to keep the details of the dispute out of the press, and have suffered in silence.”

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It's just like the Boggers/Norpig spat, only not as funny.

Natasha Whittam wrote:It's just like the Boggers/Norpig spat, only not as funny.

...and with a potentially bigger impact on the club

Seems Iles is out of favour with the club -

tweet from him -

Q to Iles - Have to say, claim that KA has withdrawn funds "as soon as cash-flow has allowed" is bit that worries me most about DH statement.

His reply - I hope they get answered, yes. Have been told by club I am not invited to a planned interview with KA on Saturday now.

Follow up Q - did they cancel it ? Or just un-invite you?

Iles - best of my knowledge @TheJackDearden still going! [BBC Radio Manchester]


Iles thinks he's been impartial but he's come across imo as being far, far to close to both the ST and LoV both of whom clearly have been in Holdsworth camp.

Maybe just a warning shot or maybe nothing at all.

Time will tell.

Natasha Whittam wrote:It's just like the Boggers/Norpig spat, only not as funny.

 we aim to please eh Boggers 

Sluffy wrote:Seems Iles is out of favour with the club -

tweet from him -

Q to Iles - Have to say, claim that KA has withdrawn funds "as soon as cash-flow has allowed" is bit that worries me most about DH statement.

His reply - I hope they get answered, yes. Have been told by club I am not invited to a planned interview with KA on Saturday now.

Follow up Q - did they cancel it ? Or just un-invite you?

Iles - best of my knowledge @TheJackDearden still going! [BBC Radio Manchester]


Iles thinks he's been impartial but he's come across imo as being far, far to close to both the ST and LoV both of whom clearly have been in Holdsworth camp.

Maybe just a warning shot or maybe nothing at all.

Time will tell.

It's a year since I last spoke to Holdsworth. Not really in a camp.

they both need to stop trying to score points off each other and put the club first. Upto now i have been a fan of KA but if half of what Deano says is true, then i'm worried for the future

Oi, Manning....!!

Why did you delete my comment on LoV when I was merely pointing out that if you're lobbing shit KA's way, it would be only fair to sling some in DH's direction too given what we know about his fucking bent "business partner and co-founder of Sports Shield (as reported in the BN)" Michael Collins?

Scared of the truth?

Kane57 wrote:

Sluffy wrote:Seems Iles is out of favour with the club -

tweet from him -

Q to Iles - Have to say, claim that KA has withdrawn funds "as soon as cash-flow has allowed" is bit that worries me most about DH statement.

His reply - I hope they get answered, yes. Have been told by club I am not invited to a planned interview with KA on Saturday now.

Follow up Q - did they cancel it ? Or just un-invite you?

Iles - best of my knowledge @TheJackDearden still going! [BBC Radio Manchester]


Iles thinks he's been impartial but he's come across imo as being far, far to close to both the ST and LoV both of whom clearly have been in Holdsworth camp.

Maybe just a warning shot or maybe nothing at all.

Time will tell.

It's a year since I last spoke to Holdsworth. Not really in a camp.

If you say so Chris.

But never the less - and fair play to you/the LoV - you've often been ahead of Iles on reporting and more often than not (possibly because some of the social media comments that are associated with you/LoV and linked to the stories) - seem to me (and clearly others too) to be more pro Holdsworth than not.

Iles has followed on from your stories and by association comes across more pro Holdsworth than perhaps he should be.

Certainly his blindly following and championing of the ST and its board members of the ST who are clearly anti-Anderson has not helped him - considering the wide scale dissatisfaction of them by many of the fans.

As an aside I'm quite honoured that you've been following my work since 2000 even though I've become more nuttier since then.

I certainly don't consider that I'm worth following and no doubt I'll get even worse as time goes on but if you do persist you will find I'll still post as fair and honestly to everyone as I can be.

Even if you think I'm barking mad.

That was based on your fine work on the-wanderer, though the 2000 bit was a guess.

I/LOV is completely independent. Deano and his crew gave us some info last year but it was my choice to go with it.

We've had similar bits from Ken and his lad this year but have chosen to step back from the sort of post and concentrate on blogging rather than 'breaking' news, though the odd bit slips through.

Bread2.0 wrote:Oi, Manning....!!

Why did you delete my comment on LoV when I was merely pointing out that if you're lobbing shit KA's way, it would be only fair to sling some in DH's direction too given what we know about his fucking bent "business partner and co-founder of Sports Shield (as reported in the BN)" Michael Collins?

Scared of the truth?

I have no idea what you're on about - but feel free to email me [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] if you think you have been harshly treated.

Bread2.0 wrote:Oi, Manning....!!

Why did you delete my comment on LoV when I was merely pointing out that if you're lobbing shit KA's way, it would be only fair to sling some in DH's direction too given what we know about his fucking bent "business partner and co-founder of Sports Shield (as reported in the BN)" Michael Collins?

Scared of the truth?

Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and get up to the Macron?
You constantly bitch here and there about the goings on at the Club from your comfy couch to get your 'fix'. To what end?
If there's one thing worse than a boring twat it's a boring narcissist!
Why don't you just fasten your bra and leave it to the ones who care about the Club?

Chris - in all seriousness I've got a piece for you on the LoV.

Why don't you do the sums since the takeover?

Base it on the following if you like.

Davies sold the club in Feb 2016.

The deal seemed to be £5 million from Holdsworth plus a further £2.5 by Anderson (when required?).

£2.5 million needed to pay the tax man.

Club running at £1 million loss per month (up to July 16) and (£800k from Aug 16 onwards)

NOTE - THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE ANY LOAN REPAYMENT TO BLUMARBLE

Income in - sale of Holding (say £2.5m cash up front)
Sale of Clough (say £2.5m up front)

Sale of Season Tickets say 10,250 at say 7,250 adults at £300 pp and 3,000 concessions at £80pp) = £3,075,000 plus £24,000 = £3,099,000 (lets call it £3.1 million for easy reckoning).

Say income is received equally each month from Aug for 10 months = £310k per month.

Plus 23 home games per season - say 3 home games a month (includes cup games) with a pay on the day attendance of say 1,500 adult and 1,000 concessions at say £25 per adult and £15 per concession = £37.5k plus £15k = 52.5k per game or £157.5k per month Aug to April inclusive - lets call it £160k for easy reckoning).

So a very rough cash flow would be something like this

Feb 16

Money in

£5,000,000 BluMarble
£310.000 ST income
£160,000 pay on day

£5,470,000

Money out

£2,500,000 taxman
£1,000,000 monthly loss

£3,500,000

Balance

£1,970,000

March trading

In

£310.000 ST income
£160,000 pay on day = total £470,000

Out

£1,000,000 monthly loss

Balance -

£1,440,000

April

In £470,000

Out £1,000,000

Balance

£910,000

May

Income

£310.000 ST income
£160,000 pay on day = total £470,000

Out £1,000,000

Balance

£380,000

June

Income - Nil

Out - £1,000,000

Balance

Debt of £620,000

July

Income - Nil

Out £1,000,000

Debt of £1,620,000

(Note I assume the debt was covered by Andersons £2,5 million at the time?)

August New Season

Income

£2,500,000 sale of Holding
Season Tickets/ pay on day £470,000

Out £800,000

Balance

Credit £550,000

Sept

Income

Season Tickets/ pay on day £470,000

Out

£800,000

Balance

credit of £220,000

Oct

Income

Season Tickets/ pay on day £470,000

Out

£800,000

Balance

Debit of £110,000

Nov

Income

Season Tickets/ pay on day £470,000

Out

£800,000

Balance

Debit of £440,000

Dec

Income

Season Tickets/ pay on day £470,000

Out

£800,000

Balance

Debit of £770,000

(Again I assume the wages were paid from Anderson's £2.5 million cash flow)

Jan

Income

£2,500,000 Clough sale
Season Tickets/ pay on day £470,000

Out

£800,000

Balance

£1,400,000 credit.


Projected trading at a net loss of £330,000 per month (£800,000 per month loss less monthly and ST income)

Feb - Credit £1,070,000
Mar - Cr £740,000
Apr - Cr £410,000
May - Cr £80,000
June debit £250,000
July Debit £580,000

So although I've only worked things out on the back of a fag packet it does look as though the club has survived on Season Ticket sales and the sale of Holding and Clough and that Anderson has not 'invested his £2,5 million into the club although he may well have paid in and drawn out to pay the salaries.

That is not to say however that he won't have to put the money in to see the club until the end of the season.

Note also I've made no allowance for the Blumarble loan repayments prior to this season and if they are not included in the '£800,000' we have been told about that the club loses each month of this season - then I've made no provision for loan repayments for 2016/17 either.

Note also that I've used the monthly loss of £1m (for last season) and £800k (for this season) - as not including ST revenue and pay on day.  If the loss is indeed AFTER this income has been included then you can add on a further loss of 18 months at £470,000 per month = £8,460,000 which I can't believe Anderson and/or Holdsworth could possibly have funded.



I'm sure you could polish that up a lot better than what I've done above and probably get some more accurate numbers than I have used - but it has the makings of being a good journalistic piece of work if you run with it.

A credit to Bolton Nuts forum would be appreciated if you do - which is more than you did when you pinched our idea of warning ST members about the hacked ST website and the possible compromise of their information.

Nah you're alright. As for the ST that idea came from WW who received a proper credit.

Deano made a commitment in buying the club and hasnt kept his end of the bargain.  Ken is well within his rights to take money out he has put in if it is there.  Deanos silence has spoken volumes and coming out now with what he has said is only further damaging our chances of getting promotion.  Ken has been open and honest since the beginning and kept everyone upto date whether its good or bad news.

You've done lots of work on that Sluffy, thank you. One thing, and I know you were using rough figures, but there's 20% vat to be taken off all ticket sales which over the period you are looking at adds up to a fair amount which has had to be funded.

Kane57 wrote:Nah you're alright. As for the ST that idea came from WW who received a proper credit.

Well if it did then why didn't you post up your article when you saw it in a post that was addressed to you about your "mates" at the ST, around lunchtime yesterday and just suddenly decided to do your article on LoV after seeing our headline 'warning' thread some 9 or 10 hours later?

To be honest I'm not bothered you pinched our idea to specifically bring it to the attention of people so as to warn them, nor any other story we might have from time to time - it is the nature of the beast in the forum/blog world we live in - but a strategy from you of crediting the remaining BWFC forums that are left these days (have you noticed how few people post on The Wanderer these days?) on the headline leads they give you, might be helpful to us both in the long run - considering that we aren't actually direct competitors to each other?

Just a thought.

Chairmanda wrote:You've done lots of work on that Sluffy, thank you. One thing, and I know you were using rough figures, but there's 20% vat to be taken off all ticket sales which over the period you are looking at adds up to a fair amount which has had to be funded.

Thanks Manda.

It was a sort of idea I had in my head to see if in some way I could work out who if anyone of Holdsworth and/or Anderson was actually putting anything into the club at all or if the club could somehow function without anything additional being put in by them - and thus try and understand if some of these claims they threw about held any water.

I know at the very best it would only be illustrative and not actual and the figures I used could not be deemed to be accurate and not totally inclusive - and hence why I made the offer to Chris Manning (Kane57) to use and refine it with the better knowledge of the clubs workings he and his LoV colleagues may have.

To be honest it really wasn't that hard to put together it terms of the monthly spreadsheet because most of the details reoccurred month after month and thus made working out a cash flow total that much easier.

I did actually have in mind to put in a note about provision to the taxman for VAT (and tax and NI deductions from wages and salaries) but got myself confused over what exactly was meant when we read that the club was losing £1 million per month (more recently stated at £800,000).

I initially thought that that must have meant a net amount - ie all the running costs less all the income such as season tickets and gate receipts - but if it did it left a black hole of millions to be found - and that as we had no reports of sales of assets, new investment into the club or more BluMarble type loans - assumed that it simply couldn't be and thus had to rework things to show a cash flow from the games.

You are absolutely right that at this stage I should also have added on to the debt side 20% VAT.

I've no idea how close or far my calculations are to the real thing but I'm sure with better informed people than I having a 'play about' with this then a 'reasonable' approximation to something resembling real life could be created as a guide to what might be happening inside the club in respect of its cash flow - and thus give us all an insight of what is/was going on.

Hopefully someone might want to take it further?

My best guess at this stage is that the BluMarble loan isn't budgeted for - presumably that should be on the Sports Shield accounts to deal with - and thus not included in the £800,000 per month we are said to be losing.

Also it would seem that Anderson may well have still got his £2.5 million in his pocket (although it seems reasonable to suspect he has had to use it at times to smooth out the cash flow when required) but he will need to spend some of it (probably all of it and more if you add in the tax and vat as Amanda has pointed out) in order to complete the season.

If he does and my calculations are somewhat right (big if's I know) it would seem Anderson would indeed have met his obligations and the spotlight would be on Holdsworth to show that he via Sports Shield was redeeming the BluMarble loan.

I hope for all our sakes he is!

y2johnny wrote:Deano made a commitment in buying the club and hasnt kept his end of the bargain.  Ken is well within his rights to take money out he has put in if it is there.  Deanos silence has spoken volumes and coming out now with what he has said is only further damaging our chances of getting promotion.  Ken has been open and honest since the beginning and kept everyone upto date whether its good or bad news.

I've heard all sorts of rumour and innuendo from various folk claiming to be "in the know" and have stopped wondering who to believe and what was actually fact ages ago. The only folk that know what's going on is those in the "inner sanctum" and no doubt the truth will out in years to come.
From recent comments of KA's saying Clough's  departure was down to DH not coughing up, I'll file that under cheap shots in the absence of any facts. Top scrum half play by any stretch of the imagination.
I wouldn't have either of them in a trench with me and that says it all as far as I'm concerned.

I'm actually so confused with all this stuff, that I've got to the point where I don't know if my arse is screwed, bored, or countersunk.