PHIL Parkinson fears Wanderers’ best opportunity of assembling a strong squad this season has now passed.

Less than a fortnight remains of the League One transfer window but the prospect of adding permanent or loan signings while the club is still in administration look bleak.

The Bolton boss hoped to bring through a spine of senior players from the summer but had to watch Josh Magennis and Erhun Oztumer manoeuvre their way out of the club after growing tired of constant pay problems.

Striker Ched Evans was lined-up for a loan move at one stage but the delay in completing a takeover led to him signing for Fleetwood Town.

Parkinson now has just five players in the squad aged 24 or over, including two goalkeepers, and is now seeing trial players look elsewhere for deals.

“The very, very sad part of this is that when we came back in pre-season, and despite all the problems we had faced, the training ground not even being opened and no-one being paid, we had some trialists in, we had players lined-up,” he told The Bolton News.

“We kept the plates spinning, kept the players training, did our bit on the training ground and I have to say the lads have worked hard despite everything that has been going on.

“We beat Salford, we beat Bradford, we would have got a decent team on the pitch at the start of the season but the constant delays, people moving goalposts, have already hindered that to an extent.”

Parkinson’s own future at the club is far from defined, and though he began his fourth season in the Wanderers dugout earlier this month he has refused to make any guarantees beyond new ownership taking charge.

The Bolton boss says he has been offered the option of signing non-contract players but found potential signings were reluctant to gamble with the club’s position still looking precarious.

“I have not had any indication that we could sign players from the administrators,” he said.

“The league said to me about signing non-contract players but the problem you have with that is if you don’t carry that contract forward the players who have played for you are restricted to play for anyone else as the season progresses.”