Bolton wage bill to be halved after relegation

An 11-year stay in the Barclays Premier League ended for Bolton last Sunday and Gartside said he will be looking towards the club's academy to bear fruit, with several players set to leave manager Owen Coyle's squad over the summer.

"If you look at our wage bill this year compared to what it was last year, allowing for a couple of people to come in, it will be up to 50 per cent of what we paid out last year," Gartside told BBC Radio Manchester.

"That flexibility is essential when you are going to lose ?25 million of revenue.

"You've got to dust yourself off and get on with life. It's not the end of the world - we've got a plan and we'll implement that plan.

"This was always going to be a year when we restructured the club.

"Owen put a plan together 18 months ago that he wanted to reduce the age of the squad because he felt there were some older players in the squad that were going to come to the end of what were great careers, and he wanted to put something in place that was sustainable.

"We've had an academy for over 10 years and we never produced a boy from the local area from the age of seven that came through to the first team, and that has changed this year.

"We have got two boys who have made their debuts in Joe Riley and Josh Vela, both exciting players capable of playing first-team football, and we have got five or six other boys in the academy who are just as good, who are on the fringe of breaking in.

"That is a great achievement."

Source: PA

Source: PA