Wilkinson Leaves Bolton

It wasn`t quite the time Leeds fans were told not to go to bed, before they promptly sold a player on deadline day, but the smoke and mirrors that were happening on Twitter today turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Having expected a new signing to come in, probably a midfielder in the shape of Will Buckley or Josh Cullen.

In the end, it was an outgoing. It had escaped the news cycles and rumour mills, but Conor Wilkinson is no longer a Bolton player after he moved to Gillingham on a permanent deal. That shouldn`t really be a surprise, it was made public that Wilkinson was free to find new employment elsewhere weeks ago and has made the move to Kent, closer to where he hails from.

The Wilkinson story is a disappointing one, with the drop into League One last season, I thought he might have had an opportunity to get regular football with us, but he was loaned out, and when he did come back, he got thrown into two difficult starts away at Sheffield United and Scunthorpe. Neither were good performances, and particularly the former, where he came in for Gary Madine and could never get the ball to stick to him like Madine can, Adam Le Fondre always seemed miles away from him and it just wasn`t working.

Gillingham fans shouldn`t despair, if he gets regular time in League One, he could be a useful player, like he has when he has been out on loan, but certainly he isn`t up to Championship standard based on our experiences of him.

Meanwhile, the wait for a second real ‘new` face of the summer continues. Mark Little signed two weeks ago, but other deals have been either loans made permanent or last season`s out of contract players signing new deals. Buckley, as a Brighton fan I know put it, has been a ‘sicknote` but if he does stay fit should be good enough for this level. I can`t help but think ‘Mark Davies 2.0` but surely he can`t be that bad when it comes to fitness issues.

Jay Spearing`s future with us is still massively up in the air, I would love him to stay, some have questioned if we really need him, but I do think he would be an asset. For whatever reason Neil Lennon seemed to never quite rate him. Under Parkinson he would play regularly in a better drilled team and that would get more out of him than what we saw two seasons ago.