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Forest Green chairman Dale Vince has issued a strong attack on Bolton Wanderers owner Ken Anderson over the collapse of the Christian Doidge deal.
The Welsh striker is now back in Gloucestershire after Bolton failed in a last-ditch effort to renegotiate the terms of his permanent move.
The EFL are now looking into why the deal fell through and Vince is exploring legal action to reclaim money from Anderson who, he says, did not pay any of the 26-year-old’s wages during his four-month stay at the club.
Doidge joined Wanderers on deadline day in September on loan, with a three-year contract agreed to kick in at the start of this month.
Vince says he allowed the deal to go through without Bolton paying up front on good faith, expecting that the funds would be paid in January.
“Loan-to-buy is open to abuse, I suppose, but why would you ever think a club would do such a thing? It beggars belief,” he told The Bolton News.
“When you enter into a contract you expect that person to honour it.
“Ken Anderson is not just giving Bolton Wanderers a bad name, he’s giving football a bad name.”
Vince was unhappy at the initial approach made by Wanderers to Doidge in August, which he says forced him to allow the former Dagenham man to leave.
“It started a little bitterly because it was the last day of the transfer window and the deal was presented to me as a fait accompli, as discussions had taken place with the player and his agent,” he said.
“He’d been offered a three-year contract, big money, and he wanted to go. He is a good player and I felt like we had to make it happen.
“Ken Anderson said he wouldn’t pay now, he’d pay in January. I thought he was having a laugh, wanting to take our top striker on credit.
“But when the deadline was pressing I gave up and accepted the terms.
“The permanent transfer was due on January 3.
When the deal was about to mature, Vince said the first contact made by Forest Green made him suspect problems were afoot.
“On Tuesday we started to think about it and the club secretary phoned to check everything was OK,” he said. “The answer was pretty unnerving.
“When it got to Wednesday and nothing had happened, Ken Anderson emailed me to say we needed to speak. He then tried to change the contract payment terms of the original agreement.
“We then struck an agreement but then the next day I got a message saying he had reneged on it, giving some fluffy reason.
“He tried again, and I laughed it off. I wasn’t prepared to deal with this brinkmanship. He just didn’t care that I was talking about legal action – he said he didn’t care. He said he was a secured lender but I’m a part-creditor, and I’d just get 10p in the pound.”
Doidge is now back with Rovers but Wanderers released a statement yesterday morning claiming the club was still in dialogue – suggesting the transfer could still be rescued.
“That kind of thing is just delusional,” Vince said. “We are not still talking, there is no dialogue. The matter is done. That’s just a PR spin.”
Doidge is understood to have agreed a mortgage on a house in the Bolton area and had spoken about getting up to speed with life as a Championship striker.
The all-time record scorer for Forest Green, he now returns to help their promotion bid in League Two, and Vince believes the player will be able to work through his experience.
“I’ll be speaking to him, but I know the manager and club secretary have phoned to see how he is, which is very disappointed, as you’d expect,” he said.
“It was a football dream come true, even though I don’t think he was given the opportunities to play. Everything wasn’t rosy in the garden.
“We feel for him, of course, because he’s a good person. I have known him for a long time.
“He’s also a determined character and I think he will bounce back.”
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The Welsh striker is now back in Gloucestershire after Bolton failed in a last-ditch effort to renegotiate the terms of his permanent move.
The EFL are now looking into why the deal fell through and Vince is exploring legal action to reclaim money from Anderson who, he says, did not pay any of the 26-year-old’s wages during his four-month stay at the club.
Doidge joined Wanderers on deadline day in September on loan, with a three-year contract agreed to kick in at the start of this month.
Vince says he allowed the deal to go through without Bolton paying up front on good faith, expecting that the funds would be paid in January.
“Loan-to-buy is open to abuse, I suppose, but why would you ever think a club would do such a thing? It beggars belief,” he told The Bolton News.
“When you enter into a contract you expect that person to honour it.
“Ken Anderson is not just giving Bolton Wanderers a bad name, he’s giving football a bad name.”
Vince was unhappy at the initial approach made by Wanderers to Doidge in August, which he says forced him to allow the former Dagenham man to leave.
“It started a little bitterly because it was the last day of the transfer window and the deal was presented to me as a fait accompli, as discussions had taken place with the player and his agent,” he said.
“He’d been offered a three-year contract, big money, and he wanted to go. He is a good player and I felt like we had to make it happen.
“Ken Anderson said he wouldn’t pay now, he’d pay in January. I thought he was having a laugh, wanting to take our top striker on credit.
“But when the deadline was pressing I gave up and accepted the terms.
“The permanent transfer was due on January 3.
When the deal was about to mature, Vince said the first contact made by Forest Green made him suspect problems were afoot.
“On Tuesday we started to think about it and the club secretary phoned to check everything was OK,” he said. “The answer was pretty unnerving.
“When it got to Wednesday and nothing had happened, Ken Anderson emailed me to say we needed to speak. He then tried to change the contract payment terms of the original agreement.
“We then struck an agreement but then the next day I got a message saying he had reneged on it, giving some fluffy reason.
“He tried again, and I laughed it off. I wasn’t prepared to deal with this brinkmanship. He just didn’t care that I was talking about legal action – he said he didn’t care. He said he was a secured lender but I’m a part-creditor, and I’d just get 10p in the pound.”
Doidge is now back with Rovers but Wanderers released a statement yesterday morning claiming the club was still in dialogue – suggesting the transfer could still be rescued.
“That kind of thing is just delusional,” Vince said. “We are not still talking, there is no dialogue. The matter is done. That’s just a PR spin.”
Doidge is understood to have agreed a mortgage on a house in the Bolton area and had spoken about getting up to speed with life as a Championship striker.
The all-time record scorer for Forest Green, he now returns to help their promotion bid in League Two, and Vince believes the player will be able to work through his experience.
“I’ll be speaking to him, but I know the manager and club secretary have phoned to see how he is, which is very disappointed, as you’d expect,” he said.
“It was a football dream come true, even though I don’t think he was given the opportunities to play. Everything wasn’t rosy in the garden.
“We feel for him, of course, because he’s a good person. I have known him for a long time.
“He’s also a determined character and I think he will bounce back.”
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