We made mistakes, admits Gartside (From The Bolton News)

We made mistakes, admits Gartside

10:10am Monday 30th June 2008 in

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WANDERERS chairman Phil Gartside has conceded that the club made mistakes as they tried to rebuild after Sam Allardyce's resignation last April.

The Reebok chief revealed the turmoil that was unfolding behind the scenes as Sammy Lee tried in vain to impose his own stamp on the club amidst a disastrous start to last season.

Speaking in a documentary, Phil Gartside Up Close, aired on the official website today, the chairman described the devastating impact that their long-time manager's exit at the end of the 2006/7 season had on Wanderers plans for the following campaign.

"It was always going to be difficult changing a manager after eight years and follow it with the success that we'd had," Gartside said.

"Change always brings about a disturbed situation and that's what we got. I think having tried to manage it by switching from one manager to a guy who'd been with us for three years, had the same philosophy, and would hopefully follow the same system. But it didn't work and we then had to make another change that was always going to be difficult.

"The decision to appoint Sammy Lee was taken on the basis that we wanted stability and I was trying to buy stability because at that time, because unbeknown to everybody else in the outside world, we were already starting to lose several members of staff even though we'd had an agreement not to.

"It was a case of trying to buy that stability back and retain the rest of the staff that were still here. In the long run it didn't work, the rest of the staff still left but that was a mistake trying to buy that stability."

See the full story in Monday's The Bolton News