NOTTS County have issued a 'hands off' warning designed to head off any Bolton bid to poach Sam Allardyce.

The former Burnden Park favourite has refused to rule himself out of the runing to succeed Colin Todd, who resigned on Wednesday.

He says he has been "flattered" to be linked with the job.

But County managing director, Geoff Davey, has made it clear that any Bolton approach for his highly-rated young manager would be rejected.

"At this stage we don't even know whether this interest from Bolton is genuine, we are only concerned with Notts County Football Club," he said.

"This is only speculation about Sam. I wouldn't want to speculate about speculation but I would say that we didn't try to pinch theirs or anyone else's manager when we appointed Sam nearly three years ago.

"He is under contract to us and we would echo our supporters' belief that we have a good manager in Sam. The board of directors have confirmed that on two or three occasions by renegotiating his contract.

"We are on the verge of doing something good here and it has taken us three years to get to this position . . . we would not want to relinquish our manager at all, never mind willingly."

Allardyce, or Big Sam as he was known in his two spells as a powerful centre half with Wanderers, still has a house in Bolton and makes no secret of his affection for the club.

He has said that any approach would have to be made through the correct channels and that would mean his directors having the final say. A stubborn County board would make it difficult, not to mention highly expensive, for Wanderers to prise him away if, indeed, he turns out to be the man they want.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.