Bolton Wanderers looking to cash-in on young guns

CONOR Wilkinson stepped towards the exit door at Wanderers yesterday, with the promise of more to follow him this summer.

Barnsley have made a bid of £75,000 for the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international, which has been accepted, and he is now discussing personal terms.

But as Wilkinson headed to League One, it has emerged that another youngster who had made the senior grade, Sanmi Odelusi, could also be looking for a way out of the club.

While reports of a move to local rivals Wigan Athletic have been played down by both clubs, Coventry City are believed to be interested in re-signing the winger on loan.

Lennon is keen to remove as much excess baggage from his squad as possible even if it means taking a financial hit, as will be the case with Wilkinson.

The Londoner joined from Millwall for £100,000 in the summer of 2013 and has spent time on loan with Torquay United and twice with Oldham.

Ex-Latics boss Lee Johnson, now at Oakwell, knows the youngster well and with Wanderers unable to give any guarantee of first team football to the 22-year-old, they have agreed to sell for a modest loss.

Two other players – Rob Hall and Tom Eaves – could also be sold on this summer for less than the club originally paid.

Meanwhile, Wilson Palacios could link up with Wanderers for a trial in just under a fortnight after MLS club Philadelphia Union passed on a chance to sign him yesterday.

The former Stoke City and Tottenham midfielder has been invited to join the Whites on tour in Austria from July 6 but, according to Union, was not ready to play as soon as they would hope.

“We’re not going to move forward with Wilson,” said Union head coach Curtin. “He’s a player we respected a great deal - a guy who played at the highest level. But in terms of fit right now and need, we’re not in the process.”

While Palacios is currently in the “maybe” pile, Wanderers will not be splashing out a seven-figure fee for Celtic winger James Forrest, as some reports claimed on Monday.

Lennon helped the 23-year-old through the ranks in his time at Parkhead and turned down an offer from Owen Coyle to take him to Bolton four years ago.

Source

Don't be surprised if Clough and Vela in particular wind up on the "cash-in" list.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Don't be surprised if Clough and Vela in particular wind up on the "cash-in" list.

There's no sense in selling those two both of whom have established themselves as first team regulars as there would be a cost to replace them - whereas Sanmi and Conor have both had chances and not made the grade and don't need replacing so might as well free up a little more cash.

wanderlust wrote:

luckyPeterpiper wrote:Don't be surprised if Clough and Vela in particular wind up on the "cash-in" list.

There's no sense in selling those two both of whom have established themselves as first team regulars as there would be a cost to replace them - whereas Sanmi and Conor have both had chances and not made the grade and don't need replacing so might as well free up a little more cash.

I take your point lusty and I won't get into the discussion I already had on this with 1874 except to say that given our financial circumstances it's very possible (imo) that a smaller premier league team looking to bolster it's "home grown" quota could see Clough in particular as a very cost effective way to do it. And we might have no choice but to take the cash and let him go if that does happen.

If Lennon is looking to buy in players it should be safe to assume that those not already released are in his plans. Never know for sure, but Clough and Vela plus the other 5 are safe IMO and are perhaps viewed as the basis of the future squad.

Not sure about Hayden White though and it looks as if the Odelusi to Wigan deal is stalling. But Clough , Vela, Woolery, Clayton, Threlkeld, Twardzik, Walker and a few more to be promoted or bought in are surely the basis of the next few years if the academy is going?

wanderlust wrote:If Lennon is looking to buy in players it should be safe to assume that those not already released are in his plans. Never know for sure, but Clough and Vela plus the other 5 are safe IMO and are perhaps viewed as the basis of the future squad.

Not sure about Hayden White though and it looks as if the Odelusi to Wigan deal is stalling.  But Clough , Vela, Woolery, Clayton, Threlkeld, Twardzik, Walker and a few more to be promoted or bought in are surely the basis of the next few years if the academy is going?

I would certainly call that a reasonable assessment and I hope you're right but I fear that in our current situation if other clubs come calling Neil might not be given a choice. He may be forced to sell them regardless of the potential long term damage to the team simply to help get the books closer to balanced. 

I agree before you say it would be insane to do that but Gartside hasn't exactly proven himself to be a genius recently has he?

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

wanderlust wrote:If Lennon is looking to buy in players it should be safe to assume that those not already released are in his plans. Never know for sure, but Clough and Vela plus the other 5 are safe IMO and are perhaps viewed as the basis of the future squad.

Not sure about Hayden White though and it looks as if the Odelusi to Wigan deal is stalling.  But Clough , Vela, Woolery, Clayton, Threlkeld, Twardzik, Walker and a few more to be promoted or bought in are surely the basis of the next few years if the academy is going?

I would certainly call that a reasonable assessment and I hope you're right but I fear that in our current situation if other clubs come calling Neil might not be given a choice. He may be forced to sell them regardless of the potential long term damage to the team simply to help get the books closer to balanced. 

I agree before you say it would be insane to do that but Gartside hasn't exactly proven himself to be a genius recently has he?

As yet there's nothing to suggest that Lennon would be forced to sell although I agree it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

I also get the vibe that Lennon has been given clear parameters e.g. "wages total no more than X and transfer fees limited to income from player sales" (my guess as to the actual parameters although these seem realistic to me) but has been given free reign to operate within them. If that's the case, any player is potentially up for sale if Lennon thinks he can get a better replacement with the money.

I actually think Gartside trusts Lennon and has given him a bit of rope.

I think you're so far off the mark you just hit Ewood Park lusty, in fact I want some of what you're smoking. 

I think Gartside will shaft Lennon just like he shafted Freedman with the N'Gog sale if he gets the chance. Gartside's only interest is in making the books look sweet for a potential buyer and be damned to what happens to the club after that.

The fact is Neil's not got any room to play; if he did we wouldn't be talking about the fact that players costing 150K are out of our financial reach (logan) or seeing players choose a League One club ahead of us for better money and prospects (Morgan). There's still no definite confirmation that Madine is our player from tomorrow and he was free! Lennon's parameters are patently obvious; he hasn't been given anything and won't get anything to strengthen the squad with.

Where did Lennon say we couldn't afford Logan? 

Marine and Amos both in training yesterday. Pretty strong sign that you're way off again LPP.

I know we signed Amos mate and I'm relieved to hear that Madine is training with us (although my wallet's about to be a tad lighter  ) 

However the article on Logan clearly stated that the fact Aberdeen wanted 150K for him was a major stumbling block for us. 

In all seriousness though I think if someone really expresses an interest in Clough, Vela or Threlkeld Fat Phil will take the money. And I doubt Neil would be given it based on recent events. N'gog was sold on the understanding DF would be given the money to fund a replacement only to be told nope, you have to get rid of someone else as well. That led to Cravies going to Preston. We brought in Juke on loan. End of the season, he's done really well for us and he winds up going to Burnley because a million and a bit was way out of our price range to buy. 

Given how many players we've already released compared to how many we've signed and how many more we need I'm not feeling at all confident about the summer. I really, really hope I'm wrong but I'll offer another bet here. 

Madine, Twardzik and Amos are all apparently ours. In fact since Madine is training with us now I'll send the tenner to Cancer Research UK tomorrow morning whether it's officially announced or not. I have no problem giving them some cash anyway.

But here's the second bet. We will not sign any other player officially between now and August 1st. By that I mean a player who is ours, not a loan. If I'm right you pay a fiver to Cancer Research, if I'm wrong I do. Up for it mate?

You've just changed it from Lennon said the fee was a stumbling block to the article. There's a pretty important difference there, stop going on about Logan there's been nothing to suggest the club was actually interested in a League 1 (quality) player and we've been linked to a hundred other names since then which have been similarly obviously bullshit.

If a big offer came in for the players you mention then you're right. But there's been zero talk of that though because these players haven't done enough yet to warrant any serious interest from a larger team so please just give that one a rest, there's so much to moan about anyway without inventing situations.

I doubt we'll sign anybody before August the 1st, we'll be waiting until the end of the window now for loans and the last of the free transfers who are left. That's the reality of being skint, we're not the only club and we won't be the last.

I never said Lennon spoke about the fee. I said we talked about it as in the posters on here and I wasn't the only one so please don't put words in my mouth. 

And if this forum is not for debate and speculation then what is it for? Regurgitating whatever the press office puts out? Are we only allowed to post happy optimistic thoughts now?

We're not skint, I could accept that; we're much, much worse than skint and frankly I'm more than a little worried about whether we'll even have a club to talk about in the next few years. Right now our fate rests almost entirely on Ed Davies and should something (God forbid) happen to him we'd have to hope his family wouldn't immediately start demanding we pay back the money we owe him. 

To paraphrase an old axiom, the sword of damocles is over our heads, suspended by the thread of Ed Davies remaining healthy and not pushing for his money back. With on the book debts of over 200 million pounds already we're so far down the swanny we can't even see the surface.

10 year notice Pete for any money to be paid back. BN covered that quite extensively. I think you need to take a break or have a holiday to get some positivity back as you're starting to sound like a bit of a bore. This year we finally have a team full of kids that we all wanted now most of the old guard have gone. We'll either storm the league or get damn close this season.

JAH wrote:10 year notice Pete for any money to be paid back. BN covered that quite extensively. I think you need to take a break or have a holiday to get some positivity back as you're starting to sound like a bit of a bore. This year we finally have a team full of kids that we all wanted now most of the old guard have gone. We'll either storm the league or get damn close this season.

Fair comments guys. I guess the various traumas of the last twelve to eighteen months have caught up with me. I dunno why I suddenly feel so down just when I'm actually fully fit (physically) and things are looking up but I definitely do. That said I'm really pleased about Madine, Pratley and Amos and think it might just turn out to be a much better summer than I thought.

But I won't be going on hols this year; we can't afford it, not with the girls both at uni and my eldest lad about to start. Maybe next year.