Many of our senior players face release at the end of the season
Following our unimpressive point against neighbours Wigan Athletic, manager Neil Lennon said that while our Championship status (for now) is probably safe, many of our senior players’ futures may not be.
Our current captain, Matthew Claude Mills has had an inconsistent three years at Bolton, and while he may well be a Championship quality player for whom we paid a lot of money to sign, I question whether we’ll keep him. He’s on reportedly high wages and maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t appreciate his shouting whenever anything goes wrong or against him. I seem to remember a Leicester City fan thanking us for taking him off their hands because he is ‘poison’.
Another fellow Leicester City signee, Jermaine Beckford is likely to be off this summer. He’s also apparently on hefty wages and he never really managed to make an impact at Bolton. He is thriving in League 1, where he’s always felt at home. Sorry Jermaine, but you weren’t quite good enough for Bolton. He also was contemplating retirement in recent weeks as he struggled to maintain balance due to an ear infection, however he has overcome this to find good goalscoring form at Preston North End.
Adam Bogdan and Andy Lonergan are both out o’ contract at the end of the season. Both are good enough to play at Championship level and both are probably on fairly substantial wages. I can’t see them both staying, and with European interest more likely to target Bogdan, we may well have Lonergan for another season or two. I’d like to see him joined by Ben Amos who is out of contract at the end of the season with Manchester United and him being over 23, we will not be required to pay a compensation fee for the impressive shot stopper.
Also on loan from Manchester United is Saidy Janko. The youngster would require compensation, should we be able to sign him. However, it is thought that a deal could be done involving Andy Kellett going the other way. Not a bad swap deal?
The newly revitalised Darren Pratley’s contract expires at t’end of the season, and to be honest there is very little to say on this- his form may have done enough to attract the attentions of a newly promoted Premier League club? I’d like to think he’ll be with us next year though.
We also have to international veterans on our books: Eidur Gudjohnsen and Emile Heskey; both have impressed since shocking the football world fir signing and starting together with a combined age of 73. The former has just been recalled to the Iceland squad and clearly has some skill an talent left- as well as a reasonable bit of stamina! I’d like to see him sign on for another year on a player/coaching basis, however he may wish to pursue other interests. Emile Heskey has also done very well, when playing. He’s always been a very physical presence and he’s still able to cause problems for Championship defenders. However, his fitness is questionable; he seems unable to play in two consecutive games. Given his age, we can’t really blame him for this, though it may well be the difference between him staying on and not doing so.
We also have several loanees other than Amos in our books and their deals all expire in the coming months. I’d love to see Adam Le Fondre and Barry Bannan stay, however they are Premier League quality players and they would require much convincing and money to land on permanent bases. Simeon Slavchev has struggled to nail down a firs team spot and is probably more ambitious than signing for a Championship side, Kevin McNaughton was never really in favour and is injured, Giles Coke and Paddy McCarthy to me seem like short term fixes (though there are possibilities of permanent deals for those two) and Rochinha has recently impressed and Neil Lennon is reportedly in talks to bring him back on loan for another year- think a non-failed version of Jan Gregus.
Other players still in contract may face the Lennon axe in the summer, and I think in most cases that it will be for the best.
I’m looking forward to Lenny building his own squad this summer; ’twill certainly be interesting eh?