• Club have until 5pm on Tuesday to show EFL they can survive • Closure process due to start on Wednesday after sale collapses

Urgent discussions were continuing on Monday night over the endangered future of Bolton Wanderers, after the club’s administrator issued an alarming statement that the “process of closing down the company” could start on Wednesday. Paul Appleton, in joint control since Bolton finally collapsed into administration in May, revealed with evident exasperation that a long-negotiated deal to sell the club to the consortium Football Ventures had been agreed at 5pm on Friday, except by the club’s owner, Ken Anderson.

“Devastatingly, on Saturday morning that deal collapsed,” Appleton said in the statement. “At this stage, there seems little point in apportioning blame because that makes no difference to the staff, players, management, supporters and the community who have once more seen their club taken back to the brink.”

On Saturday the English Football League made clear its frustration with the last-minute failure of the deal, and warned it will consider giving Bolton 14 days’ notice of expulsion from the league if a sale is not concluded by the 5pm start of a board meeting on Tuesday. That is the same meeting at which the fate of Bolton’s Greater Manchester neighbours and rivals Bury are due to tell the EFL if a deal has been concluded by the owner, Steve Dale, to sell to the analytics company C&N Sporting Risk, or face being expelled. C&N’s directors, Rory Campbell and Henry Newman, have since the four-day deadline given on Friday night engaged in negotiations with Dale and as much due diligence as can be carried out in so short a time.

EFL gives Bury Tuesday deadline for Campbell takeover to go through Read more

At Bolton, the remaining issues are understood to centre around the terms of Anderson’s release from the club and any remaining borrowings owed to the estate of Eddie Davies, the late former Bolton owner who wrote off £180m he had given to the club before deciding he could no longer provide such funds shortly before he died last year.

“My team have spent the last 48 hours working around the clock, striving to get a deal back on track and trying to convince the parties still in conflict that the very fate of Bolton Wanderers depends on them finding a compromise,” Appleton said in his statement.

“The EFL have made their position clear by insisting on a 5pm deadline on Tuesday for a deal to be completed or give compelling reasons for an extension. They have also written to everybody concerned in the process to underline that sense of urgency.

“On Sunday evening, there was some tentative dialogue but we are still some way from reaching a solution. Therefore, I am appealing to those parties whose position seems intractable to do everything to reach a compromise. In just over 24 hours, the club will have its membership of the EFL revoked.

“Over and above that, the club is currently not in a position to carry on trading and, as such, the process of closing down the company will commence on Wednesday.

“This will ultimately lead to its liquidation, the expulsion of the club from the EFL and the inevitable loss of over 150 jobs. More than that, it will devastate a community for whom the football club is a beacon of hope and expectation. I reiterate, unless there is a change of position from any of the parties involved, the process of closing down the club and ultimately placing Bolton Wanderers into liquidation will begin this week.”

Despite being named by Appleton as the one party not to have agreed the sale, Anderson denied being involved in the “discussions or delays,” telling Sky Sports News: “I have had no contact with any of the consortium, the Eddie Davies trust or Keir Gordon [lawyer for the trust] since the appointment of the administrators and was not involved in any of the discussions or delays over the last few months.”

Further negotiations over the terms of Anderson’s release were continuing on Monday after Appleton issued his warning over the future of the club, which was formed in 1874 and was one of the Football League’s 12 founder members in 1888.

Bolton are second from bottom of League One on -11 points, having had 12 points deducted for falling into insolvency, and having suspended one game due to welfare concerns for young players forced to play in the absence of a full senior squad. Bury are bottom on -12 points, having had all their games suspended by the EFL so far due to Dale’s failure to provide proof that he has the funding to maintain the club.