Bolton left with seven players but will fulfil pre-season fixture at York

The club is not yet out of administration, and though the Football Ventures consortium is close to a takeover, the uncertainty has left Bolton with seven contracted senior professionals, two of whom are goalkeepers and no defenders. The question of a further punishment for failing to fulfil their final fixture of the season has not been resolved, though a semblance of normality returned a few days ago when the padlocks were removed from thetraining ground at Lostock and players were allowed in to commence pre-season work. In a separate development Bolton’s administrators are taking legal action against Laurence Bassini, the former Watford owner who unsuccessfully tried to buy the club from Ken Anderson this year. It was the collapse of the proposed deal put forward by Bassini, who has twice been declared bankrupt and was banned from owning an EFL club for three years in 2013, that led to Boltonbeing placed in administration after debts incurred under Anderson remained unpaid.