Neil Lennon upbeat ahead of summer transfer window opening

NEIL Lennon is confident he can improve his Wanderers squad in the upcoming summer transfer window.

The Whites boss admits it is a challenge to bolster the ranks but is excited about the prospects of bringing in the right players he needs before the new campaign kicks off in just over six weeks' time.

The window officially opens in eight days – on July 1 – and Lennon is anticipating quick business at the Macron Stadium.

Goalkeeper Ben Amos and striker Gary Madine are all but signed and sealed, while weekend reports linked Wanderers with a move for Madine's former Sheffield Wednesday team-mate Chris Maguire.

Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco, based in San Sebastian, has also suggested the Whites have made a formal loan offer for Real Sociedad's Icelandic forward Alfred Finnbogason who has been repeatedly linked in recent weeks, though that has not been confirmed at the Macron and the player's wages could prove a stumbling block.

The club is yet to make any announcements but Lennon says new signings are not far away.

He said: "We’ve identified and continue to identify players who I believe will make us better.

“We’re not far away from one or two and that excites me.

“It is a challenging time, but I’m excited.

"We’re doing a lot of hard work in the background to try and make things happen and we’ve got a good idea of where we are.

“We’ve cut the wage bill and are in a good position.

"There are players out there who we know will improve us and we will get there.”

Lennon is looking forward his first full season in charge at Wanderers and is determined to give the fans the success they crave.

He told the club: "It will take a bit of time to do that – we just need a bit of patience which sometimes you don’t get in football.

"It’s part of a process we are working towards and we’d like to get there sooner rather than later.

"As far as the fans are concerned, we couldn’t have asked for better support in the six months or so we have had.

"All the people want is success for the football club as much as I do and I want to give something back to them.

"It just motivates me even more with the warmth I felt I have felt from the people here in Bolton.

"The potential of this club is huge."

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/13347586.Neil_Lennon_upbeat_ahead_of_summer_transfer_window_opening/

it all sounds promising but we've been here before haven't we?

Sorry Neil, I'm sure you believe it but no way will fat Phil or Ed let you spend actual money. Just not gonna happen mate.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Sorry Neil, I'm sure you believe it but no way will fat Phil or Ed let you spend actual money. Just not gonna happen mate.

He doesn't say anything about spending money.

bwfc1874 wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Sorry Neil, I'm sure you believe it but no way will fat Phil or Ed let you spend actual money. Just not gonna happen mate.

He doesn't say anything about spending money.

So how does he plan to pay them? In hob knobs or has Doris found some cheaper biscuits at Lidl?

Seriously mate, we see this "we're gonna sign some really exciting guys" crap every summer and for the last five years or so it's been the fecal matter of the male Bovine. We can't afford to pay Morgan enough to stop him going to League One for crying out loud. 

Cynical? Yes certainly but with reason.

There's been nothing to suggest there's no money for wages, don't understand where you're coming from there.

As for lack of exciting singings that's because a lot of Bolton fans (yourself included) only get excited about players they have an existing, positive opinion of - which we can't afford. Or 'exotic' YouTube players who've bagged 100 goals in a foreign league - who are very hit and miss. 

Fact of the matter is you're not going to be excited by who we sign because it's 99% probable you've never heard of them before, welcome to the Championship this is the situation we're in now.

Morgan, gone to Wigan in League One. Why? It couldn't be bigger wages could it? 

And 1874, I don't care about a p[layer's past record. Ever since my incredible Juke Clanger (I announce he would be CRAP before he ever put a shirt on ... oops) I've done my level best to keep an open mind. What concerns me isn't the name, it's the fact we seem unable to attract ANYONE to the club as things stand. 

And seriously, the club itself has pretty much openly admitted it has no money for fees OR wages. The Aberdeen lad was priced at 150K and that's a stumbling block for a player who could be in the Europa League next season. Look at what's going on, the academy being downgraded, not one but TWO goalkeepers walking out on free's because we couldn't offer them a decent reason to stay, players being released left right and centre and not being replaced. 

I was there in the 80's and this feels WORSE than then. I think we're in even more trouble than the owner or our useless chairman is willing to admit.

Wigan were willing to pay Morgan more than we were, and they probably have a bigger budget than we do having come out of the Premier League more recently, a rich owner and no massive debt (as far as I'm aware).

If you think I'm arguing the fact we're skint then you've misunderstood me, all I'm saying is we can still sign players whilst reducing the wage bill. Because the likes of Mills who were on big money is no great talent. If you see my comments on the Academy status my thoughts are clear, don't make me laugh about the Goalkeepers Bogdan gets an offer from Liverpool he's going to go I didn't even hear we offered Lonergan an extension and Logan was a one day paper link probably done by his agent to get a new contract.

You've inherited Rebel's tendency to ignore all facts and logic to fit your narrative.

No I haven't 1874. I understood Bogdan moving completely, in fact I was more than a little surprised to see Liverpool come in for him given his recent injuries. Lonergan I feel we really should have kept or at least made a big effort to keep because even if Amos does sign for us we need two decent keepers at this level. 

I read and echo your comments on the academy, talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Mills was decent imo at this level, Beckford too. I'm saying that in a drive to cut costs we have gone too deep already and given what's already being reported (re the Aberdeen defender and Morgan) it seems we still don't have the money to offer a competitive wage with which to attract real talent even at bargain bin prices. 

The days of unearthing hidden gems for nothing or close to it are gone and we're skint at the worst possible time. That's why I feel so pessimistic. I really, really hope I'm wrong but can you honestly say you think this club is headed in the right direction on or off the field?

Personally I don't think Beckford or Mills are any great loss, they've hardly pulled up trees in their time here replacing them for less money won't be an issue. 90% of this squad is expendable in my eyes, what have any of them achieved for us? So no I don't think the cost cutting has gone too far in causing irreparable damage to the side.

Logan is far from a 'real talent' when he was at Brentford he did nothing and was out of the side midway through the season, whilst he may have improved it's not like we've just missed out on Messi.

The days of unearthing hidden gems are most certainly not gone, you only have to look at some of the players Dougie signed from nowhere for Palace - Jedinak, Bolasie for instance or Trippier at Burnley. There's plenty of quality out there, we've just been horrendous at finding it. This is Lennon's challenge now.

1874 I don't know who Logan is? Do you mean Morgan? I thought his experience would be really useful to us and the fact he's gone to a League One Club is obviously financially motivated but that alone tells its own story. We can't compete with a team a division below us in wages. I know Wigan have parachute payments but so did we and we were in the prem for more than a decade. For the last few years its been cut the wage, cut the bills, cut off our nose to spite our face and we still don't have any money and the debt still grows. You do know it's past 200 million now don't you?

No point saying it's in Ed's name. He wants it back make no mistake and talk of him writing off 140million plus is lunacy.

Logan is the Aberdeen fullback we were reportedly interested in but for the 150K price tag that you mentioned LPP 

Norpig beat me to it but Logan is the Aberdeen defender you refered to earlier above.

Also Morgan stated that he received a similar offer from Bolton and Wigan - but chose them over us.  The debt was reported to be under £200 million - £172.9 million - in the accounts published on the 1/4/15 - and a great proportion of the debt would be almost certainly a 'paper' debt (as opposed to someone actually taking the money out of their bank and physically investing it in the club) and as such writing off £100 million plus to achieve a sale is not such an act of lunacy as one may think.

Norpig wrote:Logan is the Aberdeen fullback we were reportedly interested in but for the 150K price tag that you mentioned LPP 

Fair enough. I'd forgotten his name, largely because yesterday was my eldest son's birthday and I had my first beer in a decade. Then I had a couple(ish) more. Bad idea, Crohn's disease and alcohol don't go well together. Booming head today, really bad gut and grumpy mood to match. 

I wouldn't mind so much but I really did only have about four, maybe five pints over the same number of hours and Wendy and the kids have oozed sympathy (not) for my plight. 

In all seriousness though, despite being hungover and cranky I stand by what I've said. And in response to sluffy, there is no way in hell Eddie is going to write off a 100 million plus. If we owe it to him on paper he'll want it all back. For crying out loud it's more than his reported net worth!

luckyPeterpiper wrote:1874 I don't know who Logan is? Do you mean Morgan? I thought his experience would be really useful to us and the fact he's gone to a League One Club is obviously financially motivated but that alone tells its own story. We can't compete with a team a division below us in wages. I know Wigan have parachute payments but so did we and we were in the prem for more than a decade. For the last few years its been cut the wage, cut the bills, cut off our nose to spite our face and we still don't have any money and the debt still grows. You do know it's past 200 million now don't you?

No point saying it's in Ed's name. He wants it back make no mistake and talk of him writing off 140million plus is lunacy.

Please start reading my replies to you, we're just going round in circles at the moment. I know we have no money to spend, but that doesn't means players can't be signed anyway.

True mate. Please bear in mind I was extremely hung over when I was on yesterday not to mention in a lot of pain from Crohn's Disease. I do hold out some hope normally and think Neil might find a gem or two this window if only  thanks to his own determined personality and useful reputation. But I still don't trust the club itself. We've all seen the "it's almost done" comments from the club before on deals that never got through and possibly never existed in the first place. 

But on Maguire specifically, I stand by our bet my friend.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:True mate. Please bear in mind I was extremely hung over when I was on yesterday not to mention in a lot of pain from Crohn's Disease. I do hold out some hope normally and think Neil might find a gem or two this window if only  thanks to his own determined personality and useful reputation. But I still don't trust the club itself. We've all seen the "it's almost done" comments from the club before on deals that never got through and possibly never existed in the first place. 

But on Maguire specifically, I stand by our bet my friend.

thought the bet was about madine?

luckyPeterpiper wrote:True mate. Please bear in mind I was extremely hung over when I was on yesterday not to mention in a lot of pain from Crohn's Disease. I do hold out some hope normally and think Neil might find a gem or two this window if only  thanks to his own determined personality and useful reputation. But I still don't trust the club itself. We've all seen the "it's almost done" comments from the club before on deals that never got through and possibly never existed in the first place. 

But on Maguire specifically, I stand by our bet my friend.

Our bet's on Madine, don't try and change the goalposts already mate!

It is y2j. 

Guess my hangover isn't quite as over as I thought. 

Never, ever drinking again. 

bwfc1874 wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:True mate. Please bear in mind I was extremely hung over when I was on yesterday not to mention in a lot of pain from Crohn's Disease. I do hold out some hope normally and think Neil might find a gem or two this window if only  thanks to his own determined personality and useful reputation. But I still don't trust the club itself. We've all seen the "it's almost done" comments from the club before on deals that never got through and possibly never existed in the first place. 

But on Maguire specifically, I stand by our bet my friend.

Our bet's on Madine, don't try and change the goalposts already mate!

See my respnse to y2j mate