Six years ago, almost to the day, all eyes were on the High Court in Manchester as Laurence Bassini pursued a claim against Ken Anderson which had derailed the sale of the club to Football Ventures.
The reported “injunction” – the validity of which was quickly quashed by Judge Eyre QC – had sent heads spinning at a stage when one of football’s most complicated administrations was finally coming to an end.
Though Bassini and Anderson were left to squabble over their own claims and counter-claims, the time wasted nearly proved fatal for Wanderers, who were completely out of cash and facing the end of the road.
Wednesday have suffered this summer – those stories of missed payments to HMRC, delayed wages, transfer embargos and players walking out for free all ringing bells for those who lived through the worst period in Bolton’s history.
Likewise, the Owls may have to name a young team at the Toughsheet tonight. New manager Henrik Pedersen currently has only 12 senior players to pick from and had captain – and former Bolton loanee – Barry Bannan sent off against Leicester City at the weekend, meaning the Scot is now suspended.
The Junior Whites, who took to the pitch against Coventry City as Bolton’s youngest-ever team (Image: Camerasport)
Last weekend passed the sixth anniversary of Wanderers playing their youngest-ever team, dubbed the Junior Whites, who battled valiantly to earn a goalless draw against eventual League One champions Coventry City.
The remaining senior players at Bolton had refused to play in the game after efforts to pay a fraction of the five months of wages owed ended up largely being swallowed by tax.
Nicky Spooner and Gavin McCann led a side comprised mainly of reserve and Under-18s in a game where tickets only went on sale 36 hours before kick-off because so much money was owed to the club’s partners, Ticketmaster.
Wednesday’s fortunes have not quite dropped as far but that is not to downplay the problems they have encountered with Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, who has owned the club for a decade.
Unpaid players have trained on their own, highly-rated head coach Danny Rohl left in the summer and there had even been talk of a player strike ahead of last weekend’s Championship opener against Leicester City.
Bolton’s players did, of course, take that ultimate step – becoming the first professional club to force the postponement of an EFL game when they refused to take to the field against Brentford in April 2019.
Wednesday’s supporters have made their feelings known, unfurling banners inside and outside the King Power Stadium last weekend and even flying a plane overhead with the trailing words: “Dejphon Chansiri Out”.
The Owls Supporters’ Trust has called on away fans to protest peacefully during their trip to the Toughsheet, and not wear the club’s traditional blue and white stripes.
Writing on X yesterday a statement read: “For the Bolton game, the Trust will not be organising a protest but fans are encouraged to wear black and gold until the club is sold and voice their feelings peacefully. Please give support to a Wednesday team that is likely to be full of young players making their debuts.”
Tony Kelly steps up to take a penalty against Sheffield Wednesday – who are wearing Bolton’s away kit (Image: YouTube)
Gordon Watson walks away after scoring for Wednesday in 1993 at Bolton (Image: YouTube) Fans with long memories may appreciate the quirky link with a previous League Cup game against Wednesday.
Back in September 1993, Trevor Francis’s team was forced to wear Bolton’s gold away kit because of a clash of colours.
Wednesday had taken what – in those days – was a bold step to wear a black away kit after a change in Football Association rules. Referees had changed to green shirts, which paved the way for a few clubs to adopt black kits around that time.
A problem emerged at Burnden, however, when it was realised that referees were to wear their traditional black attire in the cup competitions. That left the Owls kir-man with a dilemma as their home shirt also clashed with Bolton’s white tops.
A compromise was reached and so Chris Waddle, Carlton Palmer, Mark Bright and Co had to change into Bolton shirts for 90 minutes, fighting back to level the first leg tie with a Gordon Watson header having gone behind to a Tony Kelly penalty.
Bright then scored the only goal of the second leg at Hillsborough a few weeks later.