Dean Holdsworth Speaks Of His Pride After Bolton Takeover
Bolton's new chief executive Dean Holdsworth has spoken of his pride after fronting Sports Shield's takeover of the club.
Bolton's new chief executive Dean Holdsworth has spoken of his pride after fronting Sports Shield's takeover of the Sky Bet Championship club. Former Bolton striker Holdsworth's consortium and Inner Circle, owned by Ken Anderson, took control of Eddie Davies' 94.5 per cent controlling share on Thursday. The remaining 5.5 per cent of the shares will remain with individual shareholders. A scheduled press conference was cancelled on Friday but Holdsworth, 47, who played for Bolton from 1997 to 2003, told the club's official website of his joy at having concluded the deal. First and foremost, we are delighted to have finally got the transaction over the line,'' he said.It's been hard for everybody involved, especially the staff who have been through a long period of uncertainty, so we are pleased. It is a huge pressure to say that you want to go and buy Bolton Wanderers and in actually doing it, we feel a huge sense of achievement and pride.'' Honorary president Davies is reported to have written off a sum in the region of £170million owed to him by the club, whose representatives were in the High Court on Monday for a winding-up order issued by HMRC. The hearing over an unpaid tax bill approaching £3million was adjourned for 14 days in order to provide Davies with extra time to complete the sale of the club. Holdsworth added:For the next 48 hours, I'm going to try and enjoy it, hopefully starting with a win against Preston on Saturday afternoon. We need to let the football do the talking now and we'll look to support the team and the manager in the right way.Saturday will be an emotional day, but it will be a real sense of achievement for everybody and we've worked hard to get here.'' Holdsworth's group have received conditional approval from the Football League, but the governing body has yet to lift the club's transfer embargo and manager Neil Lennon is unable to bring any new players to boost his side, which is 10 points from safety with 10 games remaining.