COLIN Todd, the man who twice led Wanderers in Premiership campaigns, fears his chances of managing in England again are being blocked by a closed shop of chairmen who only want to employ "yes men".

The former Bolton boss, currently managing in Denmark, where he has guided Randers FC to their highest-ever league finish, believes he still has a lot to offer the game in this country.

But he suspects some English clubs are too scared to take him on.

"I was interviewed by one chairman who said he felt I was a bit too strong," Todd said, reflecting on one of a handful of job rejections he has had in recent years.

"I think that's wrong. I'm fair and I am honest but I'm not a yes man'. I know a lot of managers who only want to say the right things, who go to games and make straight for the board rooms to mix with the chairmen.

"I've never been that way inclined. But if you look at my track record, my success, buying good players, I've made clubs a lot of money and and my teams have always played good football.

"But I think getting a job in England nowadays has become a closed shop. Jobs that come available are nearly always taken before people get the opportunity to put in their CV."

Todd, who cut his teeth in management with Middlesbrough, spent seven years with Wanderers - four as manager - in the nineties before he quit in 1999 after being told he had to sell his best players to ease the club's financial problems.

He went on to have brief spells in charge at Swindon Town and Derby County before helping Bradford City out of administration, but has never managed to replicate the success he had at Bolton, initially as Bruce Rioch's assistant then as manager in his own right, although a six-month stint as joint-manager with Roy McFarland proved an unmitigated disaster.

He was relegated from the Premiership twice but, in between, masterminded one of the most exciting seasons in the club's history, re-writing the record books with the runaway First Division title success of 1996-97 when Wanderers said a glorious farewell to Burnden Park.

Despite a valiant effort in the Reebok's inaugural season, which was notable for the quality of the football they played, Wanderers were relegated when they lost at Chelsea on the final day of the season, ironically losing out on goal difference to Everton - the team they would have beaten in their first home game but for the "goal that never was".

"Who knows what would have happened if things had gone our way that season," Todd pondered on his return to Bolton to promote his autobiography.

"It was to be a hard close season," he writes in Toddy - The Colin Todd Story'. "The stadium was Premier League standard and we had overspent on it, which was beginning to affect the budget and I got the distinct impression that the players and me were about to feel the cold Lancashire wind of change."

Losing to Watford in the Play-off final a year later proved a crushing and, ultimately, terminal blow for Todd. He wanted to keep the squad together but found himself battling against the board as he tried to hold on to his best players.

The last straw was when the club sold Per Frandsen, one of his prized assets, to Blackburn for £1.75m. He resigned on a point of principle.

"It was a disappointing end for me but I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Bolton," he recalls. "I brought a lot of good players to the club, most of whom were sold on for big profits: Sasa Curcic, Nathan Blake, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Claus Jensen, Arnar Gunnlaugsson.

"Jussi Jaaskelainen and Ricardo Gardner are still there. In fact most of the players we brought to the club at that time gave something to the club and it is well documented that I made a lot of money for the club."

A lack of opportunities in England after he was sacked by Bradford last year led to Todd accepting an invitation from Randers, where former Whites midfielder, Stig Tofting, is his number two.

"Even though I'm coming up to 59, I still get a buzz," he explained of his enduring desire to manage. "The hardest thing is being out of football. It hits you badly. So I'm enjoying working in Denmark. But one day I'd like to get back into English football.

"There are teams in the Championship who have real potential and I'd like to get back in that capacity and try to take a club forward. The Premiership is Utopia and I'd love to be able to have a another go at getting there."

For a chance to win Todd's new book, his views on the current Wanderers set-up and some of the players he worked with during his time at Bolton, read The Bolton News on Friday.