BWFC: Out They Go

It’s actually been somewhat quieter than many feared it would be at Bolton, with many clubs having a look at our ‘stars’ over the weeks leading to the new year. The transfer biggest news, other than a couple of ‘non-departures’ had probably been Medo Kamara’s release. However, yesterday Jose Manuel Casado announced that he had had his contract terminated. This came as somewhat of a surprise as he was popular with the fans and seemed a good player- a tough tackling left back with a cultured left peg. He had, however, lost his place to Dean Moxey and he doesn’t deserve to be spending every week on the bench of a struggling club. I can see him going back to Spain but for his sake I hope another Championship club picks him up, as he is a good player at this level. I do worry that we’ll lack cover if Moxey gets injured (or leaves!) given our inability to sign anyone. I know Rob Holding can pay at left back but that’s not his natural position, and we don’t have any left footed centre backs who could shift across. Note that I do not count Filip Twardzik as a left back- I think he’s much more of a midfielder but lacks the physicality to play in the middle, and pace to play out wide. Lennon may argue differently

Then, today, it was announced first by Marc Iles of The Bolton News that Prince Désir Gouano has played his last game for us. After an impressive debut against Derby County, Prince had, too, become popular with the fans. However, he proved to be somewhat of an erratic figure at the back and consistency proved a huge problem for the Frenchman. While I didn’t think he was brilliant before, I do fear that the Paris attacks a few months ago did have an effect on him as he had been there with his pregnant girlfriend and a close friend of theirs was killed. I don’t think we saw a lot of him after that- certainly not at his best anyway. He’s apparently in talks with a Turkish club so I’m guessing that they’ve cancelled the loan and Atalanta are selling him. I wish him well and as he matures, he could go on to be a good player.

So, there are two slightly surprising exits. They both showed flashes of quality and they may just have been the right players at the wrong time for us.

Also out of the first team fold is right back Francesco Pisano, whom many would think would want to leave. He actually looked pretty good in a recent training video (yep, I know it’s just a training video) but hey, at least it shows he has some quality because we’ve hardly seen him.

Something tells me that there’ll be more exits down the line.