KEN Anderson’s attempts to become sole owner of Bolton Wanderers have taken an unexpected twist, The Bolton News can reveal.

After the Whites chairman had agreed a deal in principle to buy Dean Holdsworth’s 40 per cent stake in the club last week it has now emerged that a dated letter submitted to Anderson’s legal representatives last Thursday revealed a clause which threw a late spanner in the works.

BluMarble, the senior debt holder who supplied a £5million loan to Holdsworth’s Sports Shield company to help purchase the club in March, werer attemoting to register a debenture on the company itself, and consequently had stronger security over the shares.

It has been alleged a letter, dated from July but uncovered only at the last moment before contracts were due to be signed, revealed the information which prompted Anderson to step away from the deal.

Discussions, described by Anderson as “amenable and constructive” earlier this week have continued and a meeting between the chairman and BluMarble was held on Tuesday designed to resolve the issue. How quickly that will now be done, however, is very much up for debate.

A source close to the deal explained: “It is a bit like agreeing to buy a car and then finding out the previous owner still has Hire Purchase on it.

“Yes, you could go ahead with it, but it probably not sensible to do so.”

Wanderers are not thought to be at any serious short-term risk despite the hitch and have paid all major creditors, including HMRC, and salaries on time. That is expected to be the case once again later this month.

Information has emerged on Anderson’s plan for the club beyond his proposed takeover and we have learned that two offers are currently on the table from organisations who have pre-approved the club’s funding requirements for the rest of the season.

That funding will be crucial to allow the club to press ahead and submit overdue financial accounts for 2015.

The crucial part of those accounts will be the “forward looking assessment” from the auditors Deloitte. That statement will reflect the predicted state of the business over the next 12 months and will go a long way to deciding whether the Football League choose to remove the transfer embargo which has been in place since the end of last year.

With Wanderers riding high in League One it now looks almost certain Anderson will look to fund the club’s running costs with the help of one of the available loans before considering his options in the summer, potentially as a Championship side.

We have also learned that Wanderers are waiting on confirmation that a temporary extension has been granted by Companies House to submit the overdue accounts.

The threat of enforcement action against the two Wanderers directors – Anderson and Holdsworth – is a real one, but an application has now been made to give them more time to rectify the situation.

Manager Phil Parkinson called for a speedy resolution to the boardroom issues which have deflected slightly from his side’s fine performances on the pitch but it appears he and an increasingly-anxious Wanderers fan-base will have to show a little more patience.

A meeting between Anderson and the league was shelved at the end of November, but the chairman insists he has been in regular dialogue with the FL in-house solicitor Nick Craig, who has been advised of the reasons for the delay.

The league had also been willing to sanction Anderson’s takeover until the last-minute hitch.

Holdsworth has made it known he has stepped away from the club reluctantly but is refusing to comment on the details of the arrangement he entered into with BluMarble back in March.

It is understood that under the proposals on the table last week BluMarble are due a full repayment of the loan, plus interest.

It is known that if the share sale goes through Holdsworth will stay on in a salaried role as ambassador for Wanderers and in a statement released last week he insisted Anderson had assured him the funds would be in place to avoid any of the financial problems which arose at the start of this year.