Ken Anderson - Old Owner (Definitely. For Ever ..... )

[palindromeofbolton]

And from the man himself:

Saturday sees us take to the field for our penultimate pre-season fixture when we play Peterborough United at the ABAX Stadium.

The game will be a good test for the manager and players as we prepare for the Sky Bet Championship opener against West Brom the following weekend.

We are still actively looking to recruit several new additions to the squad before then and as ever we shall let you know immediately once the deals have been done and the paperwork completed.

There has been speculation within the media and social media about our pursuit for strikers, and I can confirm that we have made six-figure bids for two different players.

At this stage we will not be making any further offers on these players and we shall consequently widen our search.

Throughout the pre-season we have had a number of players on trial with the club, some of whom you will have read about in the news and on social media.

Having these players train with us and playing in some of the friendlies provides us with an opportunity to take a closer look at them and to better assess how they will fit into our structure. It does not necessarily mean we are going to sign them. The key criteria is will they strengthen the squad and fit in with the other players?

From Day One I have always made it clear that I will operate this club in a commercially prudent manner and I won’t be making the same mistake that other clubs do and pay players excessive and unsustainable salaries.

Despite whatever pressure is placed upon us, if we miss out on players or get outbid, I will not deviate from the valuation we have put on the player whom we have targeted.

One thing which has frustrated me over the last couple of seasons was the player loyalty/signing on bonuses that we had to pay out which were circa £500,000. These are part of the legacy we inherited from the previous regime and I do have to question whether or not it is the best thing for football going forward.

Football needs to be practical when it comes to the financials as a whole and, as I often keep repeating, when it comes to recruitment we will only pay a club and a player what we believe their value to be worth and we can afford within our present budgets.

For instance, some of the players who were out of contract and left the club over the last two summers – who may have been offered new deals on more realistic terms - have ended up earning significantly less and playing at a lower level.

Of course, we thank them for their service with the club and wish them all the best, but it just goes to show that there can be a chasm in what they or their agents perceive their value to be worth and what is actually a more sensible and pragmatic proposition. I wish some of them had been more realistic in their demands and maybe we would have been able to retain them.

You may have seen some reports in the media concerning a bid for one of our players. I can indeed confirm that this was the case and it was immediately rejected.

Of course every player has a value and if we believed a player leaving was in the best interests of the club then we would consider an approach, but I want to emphasise that we are not proactively looking to sell the player in question who remains a key and vital member of the squad.

As part of my open and honest approach with you all, I just wanted to update you on matters concerning investment.

All discussions with potential investors have now been terminated and, with the exception of one potential investor who has now recently purchased a club in the Middle East, none of the other three parties who expressed an interest were able to produce genuine evidence of funds.

One locally based party produced what appeared to be a fake bank statement and we are currently taking legal advice to pursue an action against them and their professional advisors.

Although I’d personally like to name and shame them, at this stage we are not able to do so due to legal reasons.

I want to make it absolutely clear that each of these four parties directly approached us looking to invest or buy the club. At no point have we sought to proactively seek investment or market the sale of the club. Furthermore, no one has been appointed to sell the club.

The new away shirt has proven to be very popular judging by the fantastic images posted on social media and in terms of sales it has been the club’s best seller in recent times. Please do not hang around if you are looking to buy them as they are flying off the shelves. You can order on line by clicking here.

With the season less than a fortnight away, there is still time to renew or buy your season ticket and benefit from the great match by match savings that they offer. Please click here for more information on how to get hold of a Bolton Wanderers 2018/19 season ticket.

I’m delighted to report that we have agreed a deal with BBC Radio Manchester so that they will be able to commentate on our home and away matches this coming season. As you know Jack Dearden has been reporting on the club for many, many years and we are all looking forward to working with him and the sports team once again.

Next week, we will be revealing our new stadium naming rights partner, so please stay tuned to the club’s communications channels for this significant announcement.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the club’s Turnstiles Manager, Keith Entwistle, who sadly passed away last week. Keith, a lifelong fan of the club, started selling programmes as an 11 year-old back at Burnden Park in the 1960s and worked in several matchday roles for over 50 years. Keith will be missed by everybody at the club and our thoughts are with his wife Denise and his children John and Jessica.

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/2018/july/a ... chairman5/

[GhostoftheBok]

Some of that is borderline illiterate. "their value to be worth"....ffs.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

I got this:

"I like it here, I hope that if I talk about investment and forthcoming signings, then people will let me stay and let me and my family earn a nice sum from the club. In order to keep the club alive I need to not spend any money if possible and look for the cheapest deals whilst selling players for as much as possible in the January TW"

[GhostoftheBok]

I got this:

"I like it here, I hope that if I talk about investment and forthcoming signings, then people will let me stay and let me and my family earn a nice sum from the club. In order to keep the club alive I need to not spend any money if possible and look for the cheapest deals whilst selling players for as much as possible in the January TW"

A cynical man might look at that and note that with the last potential investor having been written off we've moved on from potential cash deals for strikers.

[BWFC_Insane]

I got this:

"I like it here, I hope that if I talk about investment and forthcoming signings, then people will let me stay and let me and my family earn a nice sum from the club. In order to keep the club alive I need to not spend any money if possible and look for the cheapest deals whilst selling players for as much as possible in the January TW"

A cynical man might look at that and note that with the last potential investor having been written off we've moved on from potential cash deals for strikers.

I doubt it hinged on investment, that as we've seen with Wigan takes a long time to rubber stamp. I suspect the 6 figure offers were so derisory there was never any danger they'd be accepted. "Here you go Pep we'll offer you £100K for Aguero, take it or leave it" sort of thing.....

[boltonboris]

Our offer of a 6 figure sum to be paid in installments is still on the table.....

Who in their right f'kin mind, would accept installments from that fella. Not a chance

[Peter Thompson]

Our offer of a 6 figure sum to be paid in installments is still on the table.....

Who in their right f'kin mind, would accept installments from that fella. Not a chance

You know that for a fact do you ? OR is it just speculation.

[Peter Thompson]

By the way both of KA's six figure bids (instalments or not) according to Iles were rejected by the respective clubs, KA has absolutely no intention of spending any money.

[TANGODANCER]

B.B.C Radio Manchester? Does this mean no more Tower Radio and time to disconnect the cats whiskers from the Radio Tango anetnna up in the loft? Not sure if there are many out there online anyway. Might be time to put the feet up and just listen to Dearden. He's no Higgy, but not bad.

[GhostoftheBok]

By the way both of KA's six figure bids (instalments or not) according to Iles were rejected by the respective clubs, KA has absolutely no intention of spending any money.

It's worth remembering who Ken is. Disqualified as a company director, part of that dodgy Dubai effort to buy Liverpool etc.

He was the only game in town, but never in a million years is he the guy you'd want running any business you cared about. When dealing with someone with KA's history, people have every right to assume he is lying and lining his own pockets. There's no investment and he and his son are seemingly both active drains on the club's coffers. Looking at the numbers, there should be enough cash to finance some transfers this summer, but without known precisely how much money KA and kin are taking out of the club at this moment in time, it's hard to say.

Reading his "note from the chairman" stuff is actively painful, at times - but it does at least provide some insight, even if it's not insight he intended to provide.

The club is where it is. Even if Anderson sells, his goal will be to maximise his income, not ensure the club goes to good stewards. The days of the philanthropic local-lad-come-good running clubs are, for the moment, in the rose-tinted past. When the football bubble bursts again in the future, it might come back for a bit - but it'll require a change to the law.

[officer_dibble]

Ken has his faults but he can’t magic people with money up out of thin air. And until someone else comes along we’ll be offering £58.73 for league one players (in instalments).

[GhostoftheBok]

Ken has his faults but he can’t magic people with money up out of thin air. And until someone else comes along we’ll be offering £58.73 for league one players (in instalments).

You could argue that we could save half a million a year if he and his son took normal business rates for their work.

[officer_dibble]

It’s a fair point. Wouldn’t magic up £8 million quid for a big standard championship striker though would it.

As I said Ken’s definitley open to criticism for a lot of things. But he doesn’t have the cash to invest millions so he can’t have that levelled at him.

[GhostoftheBok]

It’s a fair point. Wouldn’t magic up £8 million quid for a big standard championship striker though would it.

As I said Ken’s definitley open to criticism for a lot of things. But he doesn’t have the cash to invest millions so he can’t have that levelled at him.

Nope and I'd never dream of saying Ken is to blame for the financial woes at the club. It would probably allow us to buy Wyke, though.

[The_Gun]

The question has to be asked why he isn't actively shopping the club? He clearly doesn't have the resources to fund us on even a short term basis.

[Peter Thompson]

The question has to be asked why he isn't actively shopping the club? He clearly doesn't have the resources to fund us on even a short term basis.

You are correct KA needs to be asked about this....from an Iles piece in the BN this morning

In March Anderson discussed his intention to find investment.

“We need to get to a level of budget which gives us the chance to challenge,” he told The Bolton News. “It doesn’t need to be something at the level of Wolves or Derby. But I think somewhere between £10-30million. It is my job to get that.

“I think we know where to go to get it. It’s a fact that most of the money isn’t coming from the UK anymore. “Middle East, Asia, China, the US – that is really where my background has been in the past. And it’s where I’ll look again.”

So as you say why hasn't he / isn't he actively going out looking for this....he says that of the 4 recent interested parties all 4 approached the club.

[TANGODANCER]

The question has to be asked why he isn't actively shopping the club? He clearly doesn't have the resources to fund us on even a short term basis.

Right now, without investment, K.A's way is the only game in town. How many football club owners actually care about football? Bottom line is that we're a money losing enterprise. It's why we owed Eddie Davis a staggering amount of money we could never pay back and only his generosity stopped us becoming the next Asda/Tesco/real estate site. . In strict terms, ownin g a football club is a rich man's toy, great in importance and social prestige; in reality a massive expense, a leaking ship for all but those at the very top.(And probably one of the reasons E.D got out) Owning football club in today's money-mad world isn't a job that can exist on it own as a nine-to-five occupation and a first priority occupation. It's just part of a financial world with sport a means to an end. Not even a fair world for honest enterprise and, unless some miracle occurs, like we start playing to full houses every week (in which case investors would flock here like every day was Black Friday) we could end up staggering slowly towards reverse engineering. We'd better pray for an oil shiek or a hamburger magnate with money to lose and not a low end gambler hedge fund manager. At least K.A is enough of a businessman to risk the displeasure of the fans by his running, because there's no other way forth. The rest is up to the team and manager. Just thought I'd say it.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Imho he enjoys his role (I think he said exactly that shortly after assuming the position), his son probably enjoys his role, he repairs his previous reputation in the game, and gets to hob-nob with other chairman. He and his family takes a nice salary, all great!

Imho, when he looks for investment, I get the sense that he is looking (if he is really looking) on the basis that he continues in his role. I personally believe that absolutely no one on this planet would invest tens of millions on that basis. People don't make hundreds of millions of pounds to give it to a football club they have no connection to, and for KA to spend it for them. I suspect Ken knows this.

On the other side of the coin KA has done a decent job imho. He appears to have tackled our severe financial issues, appears to have been inventive in increasing income, has managed to get players into the club despite the embargo, and with PP has given us two seasons of success despite all the turmoil. If he manages to pay the Blumarble loan off and get through this season as a solvent Championship club it will be a big step forward.

Then there is the question of "do we actually want a rich overseas owner?". It is great for the likes of Liverpool or Man U, because they are so big that any prospective owner has to do it responsibly or face world wide embarrassment. And there is so much money in the Prem and CL that they are consistently profitable businesses. For clubs of our size though, outside the Prem, the record of foreign owners is much more sketchy. Blackburn, Charlton, Coventry (UK hedge fund rather than foreign owner) have been harmed severely. Even "big clubs" like Sunderland and Villa are suffering. And it will be interesting to see how the likes of Birmingham, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday go now the initial gamble to reach the Prem has failed, and the owners are faced with a requirement to input a steady £10m-£20m a season just to fund the club living beyond its means whilst unlikely to achieve any notable success.

China has taken steps to reduce capital outflow from the country. Owning a club outside of the Prem is more often than not a financial drain. There is much reduced prestige in owning a non Prem UK club. How long will it be fashionable? Maybe sooner rather than later football outside the Prem might return to clubs having to run themselves responsibly and within their natural means?

At the end of the day I am prepared to give KA the benefit of the doubt for now. He seems totally untrustworthy and imho we all need to keep a very careful eye on the accounts and what is going on, but we appear to be making progress in climbing out of our financial hole. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Blumarble loan, how much we bring in player sales in January, and how much the Andersons are paying themselves when the next accounts come out.

[Prufrock]

This doesn't seem... too healthy.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/16 ... -anderson/

Is Ken delaying until season ticket money/concerts money comes in? Does he not want to fund it temporarily from his own money? Can the club not borrow from elsewhere?

There must be some season ticket revenue surely? Not everyone pays by DD. I know at least two people who haven't!!

On the face of it there seems very little in support of Ken here. He is reneging on contracts. And he is dragging the club's name through the mud and potentially impacting on signings and preventing the club attracting new and keeping existing supporters. Seems self-destructive.

The club won't say whether he's in the country, which means he either is and he's hiding, or he isn't and is refusing to return. Hopefully he's tapping up a rich forriner, but equally he could be sat sipping sangria while his workforce revolts.

It's really not a good look when you can't even agree to sit down and negotiate with the PFA and EFL in the room; let's not forget, the strike is off, they're willing to play, they just want what they're owed, and still he (it says here) won't sit down and discuss it. I'm sure there'll be a toot on the bugle later on telling us it's Deano's fault and these players get paid too much and policemen are getting younger...

He's on holiday......

It's tricky because his view is the players took a decision to strike that was not legal. And used it as a way to threaten him. Having been told they would get their bonus payments, within a few days.

Their view is they want what they are owed.

Frankly both sides are probably going to need to sit down and both need to concede some ground. However, given the impasse that is going to be difficult.

I hear that this isn't hugely about the money, but stems back to massive dissatisfaction in the squad with KA following his comments after the Birmingham game. There has been a lack of trust in him from the players since that point.

Personally, for the good of the club both sides need to get round a table, apologise for their wrongdoings and get on with it.

It's not tricky. The useless feck needs to pay them what he owes them. Cannot stress enough this is not the first time. They haven't paid them on-time at least twice before. There's quite rightly no goodwill there. He's a spiv cnut and he can feck off.

I'll be continuing my retirement after this post, but people are losing sight of how much he's actually taking out of the club. Whilst this year's accounts point to the highest paid director getting "under 200k" so they don't have to state it - maybe estimate it at £199,999.99 - In the "other payment notes" - K.Anderson received £525k in consultancy fees. Another Anderson received £125k working for Athos Consultancy. And BWFC paid Sports Shield £250k for a dispute that was ostensibly between Anderson and Holdsworth. Whilst there might not be a direct connection between a payment by Burnden Leisure to Sports Shield, the outcome of that dispute was Anderson owns all the shares....All that against a turnover of £8.3m

[BWFC_Insane]

Imho he enjoys his role (I think he said exactly that shortly after assuming the position), his son probably enjoys his role, he repairs his previous reputation in the game, and gets to hob-nob with other chairman. He and his family takes a nice salary, all great!

Imho, when he looks for investment, I get the sense that he is looking (if he is really looking) on the basis that he continues in his role. I personally believe that absolutely no one on this planet would invest tens of millions on that basis. People don't make hundreds of millions of pounds to give it to a football club they have no connection to, and for KA to spend it for them. I suspect Ken knows this.

On the other side of the coin KA has done a decent job imho. He appears to have tackled our severe financial issues, appears to have been inventive in increasing income, has managed to get players into the club despite the embargo, and with PP has given us two seasons of success despite all the turmoil. If he manages to pay the Blumarble loan off and get through this season as a solvent Championship club it will be a big step forward.

Then there is the question of "do we actually want a rich overseas owner?". It is great for the likes of Liverpool or Man U, because they are so big that any prospective owner has to do it responsibly or face world wide embarrassment. And there is so much money in the Prem and CL that they are consistently profitable businesses. For clubs of our size though, outside the Prem, the record of foreign owners is much more sketchy. Blackburn, Charlton, Coventry (UK hedge fund rather than foreign owner) have been harmed severely. Even "big clubs" like Sunderland and Villa are suffering. And it will be interesting to see how the likes of Birmingham, Reading and Sheffield Wednesday go now the initial gamble to reach the Prem has failed, and the owners are faced with a requirement to input a steady £10m-£20m a season just to fund the club living beyond its means whilst unlikely to achieve any notable success.

China has taken steps to reduce capital outflow from the country. Owning a club outside of the Prem is more often than not a financial drain. There is much reduced prestige in owning a non Prem UK club. How long will it be fashionable? Maybe sooner rather than later football outside the Prem might return to clubs having to run themselves responsibly and within their natural means?

At the end of the day I am prepared to give KA the benefit of the doubt for now. He seems totally untrustworthy and imho we all need to keep a very careful eye on the accounts and what is going on, but we appear to be making progress in climbing out of our financial hole. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Blumarble loan, how much we bring in player sales in January, and how much the Andersons are paying themselves when the next accounts come out.

Ultimately if we want to survive, let alone progress we need an owner with some means to support the club. It's clear Ken doesn't have any or isn't prepared to use it.

If we go down this season, and its an incredibly likely proposition now we're going to go pop. Same as last season THAT goal effectively saved the club.

We need some investment or takeover before it is too late. With the BM loan kicking in during the next few weeks, I suspect we need one by January or we'll be in real, real bother then.