HEADING to The Valley there are 100 million reasons why a disastrous week needs to be put quickly into perspective at Bolton Wanderers.

Ever since the club chose Kevin Davies’s 36th birthday – of all days – to announce that the legendary striker would not be retained at the end of the season, the matter has become a potential distraction to attaining three points at Charlton.

Others said it more eloquently at the time, and the club won’t thank me for saying it at all, but the matter has been nothing short of a PR disaster.

No-one has emerged scot free as dirty laundry was aired for all to see.

An emotional Davies took to the airwaves immediately to voice his disappointment, lobbing in a hand grenade about his testimonial that had forced the club into an immediate and hurried patch-up job.

Another, equally ill-judged stint on Talksport followed from chairman Phil Gartside, whose attempt to clarify the situation with incendiary presenter Adrian Durham nearly descended into a slanging match.

Charlton boss Chris Powell must have been rubbing his hands in anticipation.

On Thursday, when Dougie Freedman should have been previewing a key game in which his side attempt to get their play-off push back on track, he was bogged down with questions about how the row would affect morale.

Typically cool and calculated, the manager shrugged off suggestions that it would have a detrimental effect, but privately he must have realised that mistakes had been made across the board.

Could this have been addressed more thoroughly in January? Had all the technicalities of organising a fundraising game only just come to light?

Kevin Davies will get his chance to say goodbye after turning down a number of offers to go out on loan this week. And I am also sure that the necessary paperwork needed to organise a showpiece match will also be winging its way to the necessary office very soon.

But at the age of 36 – the player, the chairman, the manager and the club’s fans all knew this day was going to come. So why was it handled so badly in the end?

Time waits for no man and if no agreement could be reached on a new deal then we move on. As my learned colleague Gordon Sharrock wrote earlier this week, experience teaches you there is no room for sentiment in football.

I just hope there is no lasting damage for anyone involved because there is a much bigger picture here.

Yes, this is a fella who stood up for the football club in good times and bad. I’ll never forget the obvious pride in his voice when he made a bee-line to speak with me – right on deadline – in the mixed zone at Wembley following his England debut against Montenegro in October 2010.

And when his team-mates skulked off to the team coach following the embarrassing 5-0 defeat against Stoke City some six months later, it was the skipper who stood up and faced the awkward questions with the disappointment still shaking in his voice.

But the football club must now move forward and make the best of the situation, starting with a win at Charlton today.

There would be no-one happier than myself if, on May 26, I could speak to Kevin again in the capital, clutching the play-off winners’ trophy.

Promotion, let us not forget, is the main focus here. Another season in the Championship would be a costly one and we must assume Wanderers are still under the “100 per cent pressure” to bounce back at the first attempt that the chairman spoke about back in August.

The incentive – some £100million in TV revenue and prize money – rather speaks for itself.

For Super Kev, what better way to cement a legacy than by sending his beloved club back to the promised land?