WANDERERS have two years to escape the “graveyard” of League One – or they have big problems on their hands.

That’s the view of former striker Nathan Blake, who is worried the overspill of money from the Premier League is creating a financial void between the top two divisions and the also-rans.

Wanderers will be playing in the third tier for the first time in 23 years when they kick-off against Sheffield United on August 6 but have kept promotion expectations in check as they continue to rebuild.

They have recruited a man who knows the course and distance in Phil Parkinson as manager and have started to assemble a competitive squad.

But Blake has warned time is running out for the so-called sleeping giants to wake up and claim a place in an increasingly disparate Championship, stocked with clubs taking parachute payments which massively overshadow those collected by the Whites up until recently.

“I think it’s an especially difficult time to be outside the top two divisions,” he told The Bolton News.

“If you are in the Championship you have got a chance of getting where the money is. After that you have parachute payments and you should be set for a good few years.

“But if you are on the other side of it like Bolton, it’s a graveyard.

“Look around you in League One and there are some big clubs there – Sheffield United, Bradford City, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City – they have all been in the Premier League.

“The problem is getting worse. In two or three years the money will have doubled from when Bolton was in there. You could get marooned completely.

“Over the next four or five years the Championship is just going to fill up with clubs who are on a different financial level because they are still benefiting from that money. It makes it so important to get back up there as quickly as possible.”

Blake does not envy Parkinson’s job – which requires a vast overhaul of players who under-performed last season, coupled with building a team capable of getting back into the Championship.

But he is also keeping his fingers crossed that after a year of constant turmoil at board level during the takeover, that Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth can now lead the Whites to safer waters.

“The manager is in a difficult position right from the off because he’s got players he’d love to keep but he know will go, those he doesn’t want who probably won’t budge and then some who he knows in his mind won’t be part of his plans,” he said.

“I’m glad to see he has got a few players in now. Pre-season obviously helps them to gel but it’s still a juggling act for the manager and it’s not a normal process because of the disarray the club has been in for the last 12 months.

“Bolton have got to get it right on the pitch but in a way, that’s the easy bit.

“I want to see things settled upstairs, I want to know that the boardroom is doing its bit again. Off the field has got to be bob on.

“The coaching staff have to earn their wages to prepare the players but I think we’re seeing more and more now that it’s absolutely vital that you do your homework on players before you bring them in. The days of Bolton gambling on an untested player should be over. Enough money has been wasted on that.

“You have to know everything – injury record, major injuries and recurrences, what his character is like, what his mum and dad are like, where he grew up – the lot. And ask opinions because some people will tell you the truth if they think a player isn’t right.”

Proud Welshman Blake worked as a pundit with the BBC this summer watching Chris Coleman’s side upset the odds at the Euros. And he is desperate to see Wanderers reverse their slump under the new manager.

“Out there with Wales I was watching a team with spirit you couldn’t imagine 10-15 years ago when we were 100-plus in the world,” he said. “And it shows that if you get that right, it makes up for a lot of stuff.

“Leicester won the Premier League by assembling a proper team and bringing in the right characters.

“When I was at Bolton it was like playing alongside your brothers – you’d eat together, breathe together, sleep together and then party together too.

“When Sasa Curcic walked out of the door everyone said it was going to be the end of the world for us. It wasn’t and we broke records that next season because we were in it together.

“I’d love to see that at Bolton and then in January be talking about the prospect of promotion.”