That's right Owen Coyle, you can no longer have that little puppy dog in the window. This was not Bolton's best Transfer Window ever, but considering the circumstances I'm quite pleased. First of all everyone was frugal this year, and Owen Coyle came in a little late, and didn't have that much time to assess the squad and purchaser what he needed. We fired our manager at the exact wrong time (in the crucial post-Christmas, pre-Transfer period), and we could only expect so much out of Coyle. I would have liked a central defender to put the fire under Knight's bum a little bit but ah well, shall we go over what we have?
In
Vladimir Weiss
Ahh I've always wanted a player named Vlad, well not really but I'm glad we have one now. He comes from a line of Vladimir Weiss's, and both his dad and granddad played football. Clearly Slovaks aren't too creative with their names. Anyway I'm sure some good chants will come of it. We've got him on loan from City until the end of the season, their squad being too full to give him a real chance. He made his first and only league appearance for City against Bolton strangely enough, on the last game two seasons ago. Bolton lost 1-0. He's been capped by the Slovakian team, of which his father is currently the coach, 6 times. While he is fairly inexperienced, having less than 20 senior appearances for club and country, the spry 20-year-old is a tricky winger, providing back up for Chung-Yong's right wing. I am wondering how Coyle will use him, as there's no doubt Chung-Yong should be starting in the right wing role, perhaps Weiss can be subbed on, or even play in the center.
Here are some highlight videos: City 1-0 Bolton, Slovakia 2-2 Czech Republic
Stuart Holden
So as you may know, I live in Texas, just a hop, skip, and a jump (and by that I mean a 4 hour drive) away from Houston, former home of Stuart Holden. He was born in Aberdeen, but moved to Houston (Lord knows why, it's a horrible city) in 1996, becoming a U.S. citizen in 2006. He signed with Sunderland in 2005, but was attacked outside a bar before he could debut and never played due to a fractured left eye-socket WARNING: Link has a rather graphic picture of the poor lad. He returned to Houston in 2006, where he played for the local MLS side Houston Dynamo. He has also made 12 senior appearances for the United States, scoring 2 goals in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He represents a lot of what Bolton lack, making dynamic speedy runs, good crosses, and creative balls. I've had my eye on this kid for a while, and I'm very excited to see what he can do in the Premiership.
Some highlights: USA 2-2 Haiti (goal scored by Holden), general highlight reel (Isuggest turning off the music, it's fairly vomit-inducing)
Jack Wilshere
Owen Coyle appears to have had a little theme with his signings: attacking midfielders. This one comes in the form of young Englishman Jack Wilshere. Coming up from the Arsenal Academy since age nine, however Arsenal isn't really the place to grow a player is it? So Arsene Wenger has made the correct decision in loaning him out. It can be very difficult for a player like Wilshere, who is clearly talented but lacks the finesse and killer instinct that only game time brings you, who has crawled slowly up the ranks but now seems to be hovering between the reserves and the bench. English talent like this is often hoarded by the Big 4 teams, in case of injury, and this will allow Wilshere to develop, to actually get game time, and will end up beneficial to all three parties involved (Arsenal, Bolton, and England). And we promise to get him back in one piece, Martin.
Highlights: Arsenal v. West Ham (reserves), general highlights
Now we didn't really lose anyone important over the transfer window. Rumors flew around on deadline day that Ricardo Vaz Te had head up north on loan to Hamilton, but now Burnden Aces is reporting that he has not gone up north at all and will wait for his contract to run out. Considering that Bolton has not officially commented on the matter yet, I'll probably side with Burnden Aces on this one. And who knows, now that Klasnic has been injured, at least for a few weeks, he might get a shot in at the new Bolton. A few more fringe players (Obadeyi, Connolly) have gone out on loan, and Danny Ward extended his current loan.
That's about all, as you can tell it wasn't a very busy transfer window, but it wasn't really busy for anyone. I feel pretty good, while your signings may have been repetitive, they brought something into the squad that it lacked before (except in the form of Chung-Yong Lee). We also didn't lose Gary Cahill, something that very well could have happened, as he's been attracting quite a bit of attention recently, and I'm sure South Africa will be on his mind, and the truth is that England squads are not built with Bolton players. Anyway that's all I really have to say. good job Oen Coyle, and I'll be back later in the week with a News Round Up