DEAN Holdsworth has accused fellow Wanderers owner Ken Anderson of withholding key information about the running of the club.

A war of words has developed between the two major shareholders, who completed their takeover at the Macron last March.

Anderson has released a flurry of statements in recent weeks to outline his position on varying financial matters but on Wednesday morning claimed the club had been left with “no alternative” but to sell star player Zach Clough to Nottingham Forest for £2.5million because Holdsworth had refused to contribute funds on a pro-rata basis.

Holdsworth responded to his accusations with his own statement, issued on his Sports Shield company website.

“It is with regret that I have to respond yet again to allegations which are misleading and without foundation,” he wrote.

“In a statement made by Ken Anderson, he alleges that I am to blame for the sale of Zach Clough – this is untrue. The sale of Zach Clough was never even brought to my attention prior to the sale – it happened without any communication to me and was not brought to the attention of, nor approved by, the Board.

“Ken Anderson made that decision, and negotiated the terms of the deal alone. I had no involvement in the sale. Unfortunately, for many months I have been excluded from management business including negotiations about players.

“Ken’s allegation that I have refused to contribute funds to the club is also untrue. I have not refused to pay, but am unwilling to advance funds until I receive the proper financial information required for me to make financial investment into the club.

“That critical financial information has been withheld from me by Ken Anderson.”

Anderson has detailed how he used “personal funds” to pay salary runs for players and staff in the last couple of months as cash-flow concerns started to emerge.

Holdsworth has countered today by claiming the chairman has taken back all the money he put in.

“It is worth noting that when Ken has provided funds to the club, he has withdrawn those funds as soon as cash-flow has allowed, without prior approval of the Board.

“The significant delays in completing the audit and the filing of the Burnden Leisure Limited accounts, together with Mr Anderson’s previous issues in his role as a company director, in my opinion, together give rise to concern about Ken’s management of the club.”

Holdsworth has stayed largely silent as rumours of boardroom issues circled the Macron – but the former striker said he was compelled to answer the latest comments from the chairman.

“The fact is that Ken Anderson and I are in dispute over a number of matters,” he said. “For the benefit of the club and the supporters, I have been keen to keep the details of the dispute out of the press, and have suffered in silence.”