Wanderers chief Phil Gartside has denied that Sam Allardyce is to be given a £4 million windfall payment to buy a new striker.

The Bolton chairman rubbished a newspaper report claiming fellow director Eddie Davies - branded by the tabloid as the "new Jack Walker" - is ready to bankroll the manager in his search for a top line goalscorer.

"It is true that over the last couple of years, through loans and through shares, that Eddie Davies has put about £4 million on the table," Mr Gartside confirmed. "Those figures can easily be picked up on from the accounts of the plc (Burnden Leisure) and in that respect it is old news.

"But it is certainly not the case that we've got £4 million to spend on a new striker."

With Burnden Leisure carrying debts of more than £30 million, Allardyce is still having to compete at the highest level under the tightest of financial constraints, strengthening his squad in the main by signing foreign players on long-term loan deals or home based players on free transfers.

Financial stability

The only signings to have cost transfer fees since Wanderers were promoted are Henrik Pedersen, who cost £670,000 from Silkeborg in Denmark, and Jermaine Johnson, whose fee of around £700,000 is almost entirely dependant on appearances.

But there are plans in hand to ease the pressures by mortgaging the Reebok.

"It is important to point out that with the generosity of Eddie Davies and other new directors, the club has achieved a certain amount of financial stability and we hope to press on from there," the chairman explained.

"The new directors have given us the first step towards financial stability and the hard work being done behind the scenes commercially is the next step.

"And we are still looking at securing the mortgage that will spread the debt burden over a number of years."

Mr Davies, the Bolton-born multi-millionaire, runs the Strix Group of companies from his base in the Isle of Man. He has been a Wanderers' director for two years and has made loans to the club in the name of the Bermuda Trust.

Although he has never courted publicity over his support for Wanderers, the claim that he is a "mystery backer" is contradicted by the fact that Mr Gartside has referred to him in previous articles in the Bolton Evening News as an individual who has "put more cash into Bolton Wanderers than anyone in the club's history."