PHIL Gartside has hit back in the bitter war of words with Sam Allardyce, insisting he is neither sad, nor bitter.

The former Wanderers boss, now managing Newcastle United, launched a stinging attack on his old chairman, claiming he had not been given the credit he deserved for his contribution to the club's success.

But the Bolton chief, although angry with Allardyce for allegedly poaching key members of the Reebok backroom staff, says the bitterness is one-sided and denies a recent spate of departures are damaging the club.

"I'm not sad and I'm not bitter, in fact I'm more excited about next season that I have been for a long time," he said.

"The people who have handed in their notice have given us the opportunity to upgrade what we've got and there are a number of new initiatives coming on stream soon that are very exciting."

Wanderers have, nevertheless, been rocked by a series of resignations since Allardyce was appointed manager at Newcastle.

Mark Taylor, who was head of sports science and medicine, has quit to join his former boss at St James' Park and Mike Forde, the sports psychologist whose job as performance director gave him a pivotal role under the previous regime, has also resigned and is tipped for a similar job on Tyneside.

Conditioning coach, Mark Howard, and Dave Fallows, whose expertise with the ProZone match analysis system made him a valued member of Allardyce's staff, have also handed in their notice along with other less prominent staff.

But new boss Sammy Lee has moved quickly to reshape his backroom team, appointing former Liverpool chief scout, Frank McParland, to the newly-created post of general manager, and former Liverpool, Sheffield Wednesday and current England Under-21s physio, Dave Galley, as head of a newly upgraded physiotherapy team.

There has also been a range of other appointments as Lee gets to grips with his first role in front-line management.

Gartside suspects that Allardyce's astonishing attack was prompted by Bolton's insistence staff who have resigned should abide by their contracts.

He said: "I am trying to get people who wanted contracts with 12 months' notice to work their notice.

"If that makes me sad and bitter then so be it. But people have gone and there was an agreement (with Allardyce) that he shouldn't take them with him.

"But we are moving on and, far from making it difficult, we are finding it quite easy to replace them with better quality people and we're pleased about that. In fact, Sammy is more than pleased to have the opportunity to make some changes to his staff and the people we are recruiting are all coming highly recommended and will make us a much more professional outfit."

On the team front Lee has already added Aston Villa duo, defender Jlloyd Samuel and midfielder Gavin McCann, to his squad and taken young Liverpool midfielder, Danny Guthrie, on a season-long loan. Slovakian striker, Zoltan Harsanyi, has converted his loan into a permanent transfer from FC Senec and former Bordeaux centre-back, Gerald Cid, and Swiss midfielder, Blerim Dzemaili, have also arrived after signing pre-contract agreements in January, although Swiss international Dzemaili is not expected to figure in the first third of the season after rupturing knee ligaments in training with FC Zurich.

Top target, Liverpool's French striker Djibril Cisse, looks set to opt for Marseille, leaving Wanderers fans still waiting for a big impact signing. But Gartside says Lee is still happy with the progress being made.

"It's no secret that we made a big bid for Djibril Cisse who would have joined Anelka, Diouf and Davies in our forward line," the chairman added.

"But we won't be putting in any more big bids unless we find the right player who will improve on what we've got.

"We've not lost any players - other than Tal Ben Haim - and we've had two or three people join us. We've also got the young lads who joined us in January who are all fitting in as well.

"It's just unfortunate that young Dzemaili is injured, but he's had his second operation and is now well into the second phase of his recovery.

"Currently we're up to a squad of 28, rather than the 23 we had last season and we've got offers in for some very exciting young players - people who might take time to secure but who will strengthen us for the future."