Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside admitted today that the club was powerless to prevent Eidur Gudjohnsen's Reebok departure once they had failed to regain their Premiership status.

The top-scoring Iceland international has signed a lucrative five-year contract with the FA Cup winners Chelsea, completing a £4 million transfer and ending months of speculation over his future.

It was a development the Bolton chief conceded was inevitable in the light of Gudjohnsen's ambition - a point the player underlined when he said today: "I was very disappointed when we didn't get promoted."

Mr Gartside explained: "I think everybody recognised that Eidur wanted to go and there was little we could do to stop him.

"Obviously we are disappointed because we have lost a good player, a tremendous lad and a tremendous talent."

Manchester City and Leeds United had been repeatedly linked with 21-year-old Gudjohnsen, who scored 23 goals last season - his first full term in league football. Derby County tried twice to sign him earlier this year but an initial £3 million offer and a follow-up £4 million bid tabled by Rams' boss Jim Smith involved modest downpayments with incentives for appearances and success.

Rumours had been rife that Chelsea were interested and the Londoners, who splashed £15 million on Atletico Madrid striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink three weeks ago, moved swiftly yesterday after accepting £6 million bids from Middlesbrough and Celtic for misfit attacker Chris Sutton.

Within half an hour of Wanderers accepting their £4 million bid and giving Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson permission to speak to Gudjohnsen, the player was having a medical!

Mr Gartside said the deal was good business for Wanderers but Sam Allardyce will certainly not be getting the majority of the cash to re-invest in new signings.

"The fee we've got is far higher than we were valuing him at a year ago and he is still, after all, only a prospect," the chairman said. "That's no disrespect to Eidur because I think he has a wonderful future but he has only really had the one full season. And we got him for nothing in the first place.

"There will be some money to spend but not megabucks. I think people understand our financial situation. We've got a long way to go before we start spending millions on players again."

Under the terms of the contract Gudjohnsen signed when he joined Wanderers on a free transfer in August 1998, the player's backers are due to get £400,000 but, I understand, that figure could be disputed.

Allardyce is now considering a move for Walsall's 21-year-old out of contract striker Michael Ricketts and could be doing business again with Chelsea with 19-year-old Finland striker Mikael Forsell being strongly tipped to join the Reebok ranks on an extended loan deal.

But the Wanderers' boss is understood to have targeted a more experienced signing in a bid to give his attack more potency than it had last season.