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Wanderers will step up their efforts to sign Northern Ireland defender Eoin Toal next week, The Bolton News understands.
Ian Evatt has confirmed that the club have had one offer turned down for the 23-year-old centre-back, who is currently playing for Derry City.
Toal, a former Northern Ireland international, is out of contract at the end of the year and has been in the first team picture at Derry since the age of 16 and now has more than 150 senior appearances.
“He’s a player that we’re aware of,” Evatt told us after the 2-2 friendly draw against Stockport County yesterday. “We did make a bid, there is no point denying it, and at the moment that bid wasn’t acceptable. We will monitor where that leads to.
“But there is no denying it. He’s a player we are aware of, he is a player we like, he is a player with good attributes and we think he will ll fit the way we play.”
Toal is currently preparing for a Europa Conference League game against Riga – but a Wanderers contingent will travel to Ireland next week to continue negotiations.
“We’ll do things smartly and strategically and we value everybody,” Evatt added. “If that value is not the right value then we’ll move on to other targets, simple as that.”
Wanderers were alerted to Toal by former striker Eoin Doyle, who agreed to help scout the Irish league after he signed for St Patrick’s in January.
Evatt is looking to broaden the club’s transfer horizons and believes there could be some bargains to be snapped up over the coming months.
“Doyler is doing some really good work for us over there,” he said. “He has spent time with Chris (Markham) in the last week or two, so there’s lots of good work over there.
“There’s some good players over there, no doubt, there’s some really good potential and we’re working really hard everywhere really to try and identify the player we think can play the way we want to play and if that opens up a different market in a different country, then we’re willing to do that.”
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