Mills Fee Agreed! - NIXON

Zat Knight wants to stay at Bolton Wanderers and sign a new two-year contract.

Giant centre half Knight asked for time to consider his future after relegation but rang Coyle to tell him he is happy to carry on with Wanderers and commit to their promotion bid.

Coyle is delighted that Knight has stuck by the club, but he is still closing a deal for Leicester City’s transfer-seeking Matt Mills as well.

Bolton have agreed a price with the Foxes for Mills and hope to complete the move this week - despite a late attempt by Chris Hughton’s Norwich to hijack the transfer.

Wanderers are also trying to seal deals for Republic of Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews and Colombia World Cup star Carlos Sanchez.

Free agent Andrews is expected for talks this week on his return from the Euro 2012 finals while Sanchez may accept Bolton’s contract offer in the next few days.

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A TWO YEAR DEAL????

Right I'm off for a brandy.

Iles is claiming that we are set to sign Mills on loan with a view to a 1.5M transfer at the end of the coming season.

As Long as we get Mills ill take Knight staying.Hopefully Knight will be w arming the Bench and playing in the Capital 1 cup only.Cant wait for the season to start.I think Gartside and Eddie Davies have realised that with the new Sky deal thats been brokered we need to get back up 1st time.So maybe Coyle has got a few xtra quid to spend.Only time will tell.

Wanderers are poised to sign Leicester City defender Matt Mills on a season-long loan deal.

The 25-year-old centre-back has been seeking to quit the King Power Stadium after a high-profile bust-up with Nigel Pearson next season.

It had been expected that the Whites would have to cough up £3million up front to secure his signature – but sources in the Midlands claim the move could be made permanent for half that amount next summer.

Mills will be up against Zat Knight and Tim Ream for a place at the heart of the Wanderers defence, and could also face competition from David Wheater, who is pencilled in for a New Year return.

But the 'try before you buy' deal enables him to kick-start his own career, which has struggled since making a £4m move to Leicester from Reading at the start of last season.

It also lets Coyle get a good look at him in a campaign he hopes will finish with promotion back to the Premier League.

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I know nowt about Mills so no opinion.... has anybody seen him play?

Just read this on a Leicester forum:

"If Mills is interesting Bolton as seems evident, we should inquire about Mark Davies + cash for the transfer. Davies is the ball playing midfielder with pace that we are looking for. James and Drinkwater can play behind him - particularly Drinkwater who gets more stuck in."

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Also this:

"We should just say forget the money and try and do a straight swap for Mark Davies"

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Talking balls sounds about right. Why would we get rid of Mavies when we had such difficulties with midfield last season and have since lost NRC?
if they want a straight swap, they can have Zatiyah.

It really is amazing how other fans see our players. Mark Davies was useless last season.

Ahh right, Mark Davies played for Leicester on loan. I think most people would agree he's worth a little bit more than Mills. But as Dirty Harry says, "opinions are like assholes - everybody's got one".

Even if a Davies mills swap was a possibility, would he really want to go to Leicester? Surely not.

Mills at £1.5 million is a good buy I think. Watched him for reading the season before last and was impressed, looked like a leader too, should be an improvement on knight anyway.

Natasha Whittam wrote:It really is amazing how other fans see our players. Mark Davies was useless last season.

...... no he wasn't.

It does sum up our season though that Mark Davies, with his wild inconsistencies and often having gone missing for 2 or 3 games at a time was one of our better players.

I'll be very interested to see what Mark Davies can do at this level, will he finally step up and impose himself on games or will he still let things pass him by.

I have faith in him, i hope he can do it.

I have faith in him, but only if he is played in the right position. I still think Coyle should be allowing him to play further forward.

I've been saying that for a long time, couldn't agree with you more.

as a second striker i think he'd flourish.

the "Silva" role.

WTF is going on? We have a bunch of lightweight kids with great potential and I was thinking all they need is an opportunity to play regularly and a defence behind them - plus Stuey back. I can only say that OC has really taken this to heart if these signings come off. Mills, Andrews and Sanchez - we are talking tough-tackling no-nonsense ballwinners here. F*** the beautiful game. Even with Zat Knight in defence - if he plays ahead of Mills/Ream - Barcelona would have a hard time getting through with Sanchez and Andrews in front of them. Thing is that Stuey has to play so OC will have to get the balance right between parking the bus and giving the young talent an opportunity to express themselves. These signings would be good for the squad, but shouldn't all play at once IMO.

Why not? were bound to win if we have 14 on the park, (aren't we ?). I think in the longer term, its OC's inability to move players around for specific games or situations that cost us our premiership status. Trying to blend young and old players, whislt handling the expectations of immediate promotion, may well highlight his managerial inadequacies, again.

Fair point. Hopefully he'll get it right this time.

wanderlust wrote:WTF is going on? We have a bunch of lightweight kids with great potential and I was thinking all they need is an opportunity to play regularly and a defence behind them - plus Stuey back. I can only say that OC has really taken this to heart if these signings come off. Mills, Andrews and Sanchez - we are talking tough-tackling no-nonsense ballwinners here. F*** the beautiful game. Even with Zat Knight in defence - if he plays ahead of Mills/Ream - Barcelona would have a hard time getting through with Sanchez and Andrews in front of them. Thing is that Stuey has to play so OC will have to get the balance right between parking the bus and giving the young talent an opportunity to express themselves. These signings would be good for the squad, but shouldn't all play at once IMO.

bloody good post this!

wanderlust wrote:WTF is going on? We have a bunch of lightweight kids with great potential

Unless you're a regular at the Reserves how do you know? Coyle isn't exactly known for giving youngsters a chance, why would he start now?

We need steel to get promoted next season, not more lightweight fannies.