WANDERERS believe they are close to overturning their transfer embargo with the Football League.

The club has been unable to sign players since being presented with a winding-up petition by HMRC at the end of last year.

Their situation was further complicated by the takeover, which left the club unable to submit the necessary financial forecasts needed to prove they could pass Financial Fair Play this year.

A total embargo was imposed which has also restricted contractual extensions to any players aged 24 and over.

Ken Anderson, the club’s co-owner, predicted that the embargo will be removed when the club meets with the Football League at the end of the season, enabling them to sign players again in the summer.

“The next meeting that we have with Shaun Harvey (Football League chief executive), I'm confident that that will go through,” he said. “They haven't come back with anything untoward.

“There's one or two things they'd still like clarification on – but I'm confident that that will be there before the transfer window opens.”

The club’s yearly financial accounts are also overdue at Companies House but Anderson believes that problem will also be solved quickly.

“The accounts are finished,” he said. “They have to do the KYC (Know Your Customer) on Dean and myself.

“The lawyers have dealt with that now and I think we are almost there. I'm sure, as usual, there will be one or two more questions but I'm confident that will be okay.”

It is believed the Whites will look to operate within a playing budget of between £5-6million next season, which will mean wholesale changes in the first-team squad and the removal of several higher earners.

But while the likes of David Wheater, Neil Danns, Emile Heskey and Liam Feeney are out of contract in the summer, others such as Ben Amos, Dean Moxey, Darren Pratley and Jay Spearing are tied to the club for next term.

Speaking to The Bolton News, Anderson admitted the process of cutting down a wage budget that currently stands in excess of £10m will not be a simple task over the coming months.

“I think the honest answer is we all know a number of players are going to leave,” he said.

“My first thing today is asking the players – who wants to be here and work with us next season? I'm sure there will be some that do and a few that don't.

“The biggest thing to manage is the players with the biggest salaries and whether we can find clubs who will take them.

“Several of them won't want to be here because they won't want to play in League One, they will want to play in the Championship.

“Their salary bands will probably ensure it's not going to be an easy job to find another club.

“If the player doesn't want to be here, we don't want them to be here. We'd rather they move on.”

Anderson, a former agent whose son Lee is also in the business, says the club will not be giving out ‘golden handshakes’ to get big wages off the books.

“What we won't be doing, if we can control it, is we're not going to pay players large amounts of money to leave – a compromise agreement,” he said.

“If it comes to the stage where a player's on £20,000 a week and finding a club who are offering 15 and the player and his agent are saying, 'I want you to pay the £5,000 shortfall for the next two years'. We're not going to do it.

“We will try and get the player out on loan and if he goes out on loan I may have to subside, which I don't want to do, but it's a lot easier to find £5,000 a week than £500,000 in one go. If I pay all the players off that want to go we won't have sufficient funds to bring in the players we want to bring in.”

Chief operating officer Dean Holdsworth met with the Bolton Wanderers Supporters’ Trust yesterday to discuss their future plans.

Anderson confirmed his intention is to be more transparent with fans and bodies like the trust, avoiding the mistakes of the previous regime.

“It’s very much an open door situation,” he said. “I have worked with Supporters Trusts in the past and I intend to work with this one.

“I am not saying I’ll be able to give them all the information – a lot of it is confidential – but where possible we’ll listen. They are the lifeblood of the club.”