FORMER boss Sam Allardyce has given an account of the breakdown of his relationship with Phil Gartside during the final few years of his time in charge at Wanderers.

Big Sam is preparing to release his autobiography, which is being serialised in The Sun newspaper.

In the book he chronicles his eight years at the helm during which time the club achieved promotion from the second tier, qualified for Europe for the first time in their history and four successive top eight finishes in the Premier League.

But Allardyce claims the discord in his bond with Gartside began in the build-up to the League Cup final 11 years ago.

He also claims to have offered his resignation at the end of the 2005/6 season, which saw the club slump from European contention with five successive defeats to finish eighth.

“My relationship with Bolton chairman Phil Gartside went downhill after the 2004 Carling Cup final against Middlesbrough,” he wrote in an excerpt printed in this morning’s edition of The Sun.

“I was taking in the atmosphere in the Millennium Stadium before the game when Phil stopped for a chat. It was clear he was worried about money.

“Do you know what, Sam? It’s been a great journey but if we win this we are going to get into Europe and I’m not sure we can afford it.

“I couldn’t believe what he’d said. I was disgusted.

“At Christmas 2006 I asked Phil for some money to add to the squad. ‘Look,’ I said. ‘We can get Bolton into the Champions League.’ “I wanted Phil to show some b***s, to go for it, to be part of the dream we had in the early days. But the courage wasn’t there.

“He got back to me and said, ‘We’ve got no money. You can loan a player, but that’s it.’ “That’s when I knew for sure it was over for me at Bolton. I was thoroughly p***ed off with the club’s attitude and handed in my letter of resignation, although they talked me into staying until the end of the season.

“I had loved being in charge of a team that consistently over-achieved and upset the establishment by giving the elite a bloody nose.”

Wanderers and Gartside have declined to comment on the excerpt from Allardyce’s book for the time being.

The former boss, now in charge at Sunderland, also praised the backroom his built at Bolton – admitting he has failed to match it elsewhere during spells with Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers or West Ham.

“My staff and I were presiding over the best coaching set-up in the Premier League,” he wrote.

“At the training ground, I built the War Room, which was where we planned our strategy and analysed our data on a big screen.

“It was the Oxford University of football. It took years to get it as I wanted and I never managed to properly re-create it anywhere else.

“The Milan Lab was lauded as being the secret behind Italian football success but I will happily bet we were better than them and better than Real Madrid or Barcelona.”