Is Al-Habsi Really Going to Stay?

So Bolton`s second string ‘keeper Ali Al-Habsi has signed a deal that will keep him at the Reebok until 2013, if the blurb is to be believed. As Angus Deayton would say, the words ‘rat` and ‘smell` spring to mind.

Is the Omani stopper, at nearly 27, really prepared to spend the entire length of Jussi Jaaskelainen`s contract acting as understudy to the Finn? It seems unlikely.

The odds are that Al-Habsi has been given a substantial pay increase in return for signing a deal that will enable Bolton to get a better price for him, when offers come in, either in the January transfer window or in the summer.

Al-Habsi is yet to comment on his new contract.