Wanderers Make Double Loan Swoop

Just as Wanderers fans were beginning to despair at the lack of January incomings, Neil Lennon has added much-needed attacking strength to the side. Bolton have confirmed the loan signings of Cardiff striker Adam Le Fondre and young Benfica midfielder Rochinha, but what will these signings add to our squad?

Anyone who has followed lower league football will know that Adam Le Fondre is a proven goalscorer. The striker, who has 164 career goals to his name, first made a name for himself at Lancashire side Rochdale, where he bagged 42 goals in 112 games.

Those goals got him a move to on-the-rise Rotherham United, where he scored 30 goals in his first season. 24 goals the following term and four goals in four league games at the start of the 2011/12 earned him a move to Championship side Reading.

He scored 41 goals in 110 games for The Royals before moving on to fellow Championship club Cardiff City at the start of this season. But life in Wales hasn’t been quite so rosy for Le Fondre, who has only managed three goals in 21 games for The Bluebirds this season.

There’s no doubting Le Fondre is an established goal threat that Wanderers have been in desperate need of for some time, and he should provide the perfect foil for the likes of target men Craig Davies and Emile Heskey. He also has the technical quality to fit perfectly into the passing play that Lennon has employed with the likes of Chung-Yong Lee, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Liam Feeney.

Bolton’s second new signing will be much less-known to the vast majority of Wanderers fans. Rochinha – or Diogo Felipe Costa Rocha to his friends.

Rochinha is a 5’7 midfielder who joins on loan from Portuguese giants Benfica. He has yet to represent the senior team but played four games in the Segunda Liga for Benfica B since making his debut in October.

The midfielder impressed in last season’s UEFA Youth League, in which he was an ever-present fixture as Benfica made it all the way to the final only to be defeated by a Barcelona side that featured the likes of wonderkid Munir El Haddadi – no shame in that. Rochinha racked up five assists and six goals in the competition, so he clearly has an eye for goal and creative streak that Wanderers have been sadly lacking so far this season.

A warm welcome to Bolton to both Le Fondre and Rochinha, and I can’t wait to see them banging the goals in at the Macron for the remainder of this season.