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For some Wanderers fans, the thought of even entertaining a deal to sell Dapo Afolayan in January, rather than building a team around him, is abhorrent, for others the half-a-million price tag mentioned in the German press yesterday seemed a fair deal.
If speculation which has been bubbling under for a couple of weeks is to be believed, then Bolton’s reigning player of the year, and last season’s top scorer, could be on his way this month, possibly to Hamburg-based St Pauli. And the prospect puts Ian Evatt and club owners Football Ventures into a position they have not yet faced before.
Substantiating the sale of a player as popular as Afolayan will never an easy task, regardless of whether it comes now, or in the future.
Wanderers’ historical track record of getting a price universally considered fair is not a good one, stretching way back to the days of Paul Fletcher and proceeding through countless examples to more recent exits like Rob Holding.
Exactly five years ago the club were haggling with Cardiff City over a valuation for star centre-forward Gary Madine. And his fee was one of the rare occasions that the pain felt worth it – that is, if you look past the fact the finances of the club still went south immediately afterwards, and we are still none the wiser as to what the £6million actually went towards.
At the time, Bolton appeared to capitalise on Neil Warnock’s insistence that Madine was the man his side needed to get them into the Premier League. And whether Vincent Tan and Co overpaid or not, you cannot argue that they achieved their goal.
Madine was in the form of his career, his stock completely transformed from the risky free transfer that had been picked up a couple of seasons prior from Sheffield Wednesday by Neil Lennon. It was the definition of a seller’s market.
In Afolayan’s case, this has been a difficult season. He has featured in just 55.6 per cent of the total minutes played in League One, hopping from one position to the next in a formation where he – quite sadly, in this writer’s view – has been the chief sacrifice for the greater good of the team.
At the start of last season he had been unstoppable as a left-sided attacker in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, racing to double figures by January with a goal in the 6-0 demolition of Sunderland.
Rangers were strongly linked with him at that point, seemingly as a replacement for Ryan Kent who was apparently on Leeds United’s radar. Had that transfer chain developed then one wonders if Wanderers could have charged a premium?
Twelve months on, Evatt has tried several ways to integrate Afolayan into his side and spark the same sort of success. His partnership as a centre forward with Dion Charles looked the best bet – but that stopped unexpectedly in its tracks at the end of December when he was picked up by the TV cameras connecting with his elbow on Lincoln City midfielder Lasse Sorensen. As the New Year celebrations began, the Football Association announced a three-game ban.
And it was at that point the rumours started. German side St Pauli’s interest has now broken into the mainstream but there have been whispers of Championship teams also being interested, so the story may still have some room to roll.
Since Football Ventures arrived at the club their mantra has been sustainability – and outside the Premier League, the only way that can possibly be achieved is by player trading.
It won’t please Bolton fans to be described as a selling club but the truth is, it has been that way for a decade, they just haven’t been very good at it.
Evatt has been coy when talking about Afolayan’s future, or indeed the reason he was excluded from the squad against Portsmouth on Tuesday night despite being eligible to play in the Papa Johns Trophy.
The Bolton boss said he wanted to concentrate on the players that would be available to him at the weekend. Reports in Germany claim the deal to be “close” but state that there has been no medical.
This is unchartered territory for Evatt, who has maintained for the last few windows that he would sell players provided clubs had “deep pockets” and that it would be in the best interest of the club. News of Afolayan’s potential move came shortly after the manager had discussed an “exciting” new arrival, which had been in the pipeline for a couple of weeks. It may only be once the full window has elapsed that we can assess whether the trading has been successful.
Afolayan’s stock has certainly been boosted by his two full years with Bolton, and if they were to continue into the final year of his current contract then there would be few complaints. But if this is auf wiedersehen, then what the club do next will be well worth watching.
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For some Wanderers fans, the thought of even entertaining a deal to sell Dapo Afolayan in January, rather than building a team around him, is abhorrent, for others the half-a-million price tag mentioned in the German press yesterday seemed a fair deal.
If speculation which has been bubbling under for a couple of weeks is to be believed, then Bolton’s reigning player of the year, and last season’s top scorer, could be on his way this month, possibly to Hamburg-based St Pauli. And the prospect puts Ian Evatt and club owners Football Ventures into a position they have not yet faced before.
Substantiating the sale of a player as popular as Afolayan will never an easy task, regardless of whether it comes now, or in the future.
Wanderers’ historical track record of getting a price universally considered fair is not a good one, stretching way back to the days of Paul Fletcher and proceeding through countless examples to more recent exits like Rob Holding.
Exactly five years ago the club were haggling with Cardiff City over a valuation for star centre-forward Gary Madine. And his fee was one of the rare occasions that the pain felt worth it – that is, if you look past the fact the finances of the club still went south immediately afterwards, and we are still none the wiser as to what the £6million actually went towards.
At the time, Bolton appeared to capitalise on Neil Warnock’s insistence that Madine was the man his side needed to get them into the Premier League. And whether Vincent Tan and Co overpaid or not, you cannot argue that they achieved their goal.
Madine was in the form of his career, his stock completely transformed from the risky free transfer that had been picked up a couple of seasons prior from Sheffield Wednesday by Neil Lennon. It was the definition of a seller’s market.
In Afolayan’s case, this has been a difficult season. He has featured in just 55.6 per cent of the total minutes played in League One, hopping from one position to the next in a formation where he – quite sadly, in this writer’s view – has been the chief sacrifice for the greater good of the team.
At the start of last season he had been unstoppable as a left-sided attacker in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, racing to double figures by January with a goal in the 6-0 demolition of Sunderland.
Rangers were strongly linked with him at that point, seemingly as a replacement for Ryan Kent who was apparently on Leeds United’s radar. Had that transfer chain developed then one wonders if Wanderers could have charged a premium?
Twelve months on, Evatt has tried several ways to integrate Afolayan into his side and spark the same sort of success. His partnership as a centre forward with Dion Charles looked the best bet – but that stopped unexpectedly in its tracks at the end of December when he was picked up by the TV cameras connecting with his elbow on Lincoln City midfielder Lasse Sorensen. As the New Year celebrations began, the Football Association announced a three-game ban.
And it was at that point the rumours started. German side St Pauli’s interest has now broken into the mainstream but there have been whispers of Championship teams also being interested, so the story may still have some room to roll.
Since Football Ventures arrived at the club their mantra has been sustainability – and outside the Premier League, the only way that can possibly be achieved is by player trading.
It won’t please Bolton fans to be described as a selling club but the truth is, it has been that way for a decade, they just haven’t been very good at it.
Evatt has been coy when talking about Afolayan’s future, or indeed the reason he was excluded from the squad against Portsmouth on Tuesday night despite being eligible to play in the Papa Johns Trophy.
The Bolton boss said he wanted to concentrate on the players that would be available to him at the weekend. Reports in Germany claim the deal to be “close” but state that there has been no medical.
This is unchartered territory for Evatt, who has maintained for the last few windows that he would sell players provided clubs had “deep pockets” and that it would be in the best interest of the club. News of Afolayan’s potential move came shortly after the manager had discussed an “exciting” new arrival, which had been in the pipeline for a couple of weeks. It may only be once the full window has elapsed that we can assess whether the trading has been successful.
Afolayan’s stock has certainly been boosted by his two full years with Bolton, and if they were to continue into the final year of his current contract then there would be few complaints. But if this is auf wiedersehen, then what the club do next will be well worth watching.
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