By Mark Heys
June 15 2007

The Wanderers are one of five Premiership clubs named in Lord Stevens report into football transfers along with Chelsea, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United and Portsmouth.

Former Metropolitan Police Commisioner Stevens has spent the last fifteen months probing a number of football transfers which might have involved payments to unlicensed agents or third parties.

Of note in the report was the conflict of interest between ex-Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce and his former agent son Craig as well as Graeme Souness dealings with the son of Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepherd.

Seventeen transfers involving fifteen agents or third parties will require further scrutiny and these include Bolton's signings of current reserve team goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, Tal Ben-Haim who departed for Chelsea yesterday and Blessing Kaku and Julio Cesar, both of whom failed to muster a dozen games between them in the 2004-2005 season.

Also requring further surveilance will be Chelsea's captures of Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Petr Cech, with Middlesbrough's dealings to bring Fabio Rochemback and Yakubu to the Riverside Stadium also being looked into.

Portsmouth and Newcastle feature heavily in the report with dealings involving Jean Alain Boumsong, Emre, Albert Luque and Amdy Faye (Newcastle) and Collins Mbesuma, Benjani Mwaruwari and Aliou Cisse (Portsmouth) set for investigation.

A further transfer deal remains undisclosed to the media but Stevens has picked out the agents who have not been co-operative during the investigations over the last year or so.

Pini Zahavi, Barry Silkman, Craig Allardyce, Francis Martin and Willie McKay are just some of the names who Stevens is referring to but it has to be noted that no evidence was found of illegal payments to any players or club officials.

Stevens had initially been looking into over 300 transfers which occured between 2004 and 2006 and this has since been narrowed down following further investigations.

Lord Stevens issued the following statement to the awaiting press earlier today.

"Many lessons have been learned and strict adherence to and enforcement of the recommendations should ensure that the game and the transfer market can proceed in an untainted and transparent manner."

The Premier League will now pass on Lord Stevens findings to The Football Association and FIFA and further action may be taken

"The Premier League will now send the findings to the FA and Fifa. Following the final report of the Premier League's Quest Inquiry, the FA will give full consideration to its contents and the documentation that is due to be passed on by the Premier League and Quest.

"The FA has provided full co-operation and support to the Premier League and Quest and will now go through their information as part of our governance and regulation process. This will determine what action is required"

Bolton Wanderers where delighted that the report did not implicate any players or club officials and said that they would be helping out with any further investigations to catch the culprits involved.

An official statement from the Wanderers read:

Bolton Wanderers are pleased to receive the news that the Quest enquiry has exonerated the club and officials still employed by the club in its extensive enquiry into transfers and illegal payments.

We have cooperated fully with the enquiry team and are now prepared to share the findings of our own independent internal enquiry to help conclude the matter.

We have always maintained that the club has acted in a professional and responsible manner and feel this closes a very difficult chapter.

The club will make no further statements on this matter.