This rumour has been rolling around since May, but it has actually come to fruition (for an undisclosed fee). It did originally include another player, but this deal is just for the young Marcos Alonso, who hails from Real Madrid's youth system, and very briefly, their first team. No one appears to know much about the left back, his only appearance for Real Madrid came in the 90th minute when they were 2-0 up. So why does someone at Real Madrid with his pedigree (I'll get to that in a second) come to little old Bolton? Well he says:
"At Real Madrid it is very hard to jump into the first-team, so the best way to reach the top was to come to another team. I think that the Premier League is the best league in the world and my feelings were that Bolton was a really good option, so here I am."
Fair enough really. I am quite excited about this player, he seems enthusiastic, and you can't argue with his blood. His grandfather was Marcos Alonso Imaz (Marquitos), who won 5 European Cups with Real Madrid, while his father, also Marcos Alonso, won the league and several cups with Barcelona. Our Marcos Alonso generally plays at left back, which is interesting in terms of Bolton's squad. Our two left backs are of course Jlloyd Samuel and Paul Robinson. Out of the two I would say Jlloyd is more talented, however for some reason managers prefer Robinson, whose body bears more semblance to a builder's than a footballer's. At any rate, I really would rather not have either of those players in my starting line up, so Alonso may find himself a first teamer quite soon. The other thing about this move is that it may be Coyle covering for his eventual offload of Jlloyd, which has been rumoured for quite a while.
Alonso was unveiled yesterday, and though he is currently recovering from an ankle injury, he hopes to be fit by August 14th. I think you should all know the significance of that date by this point. If any Madristas have anything to say about Alonso, I would really love to hear it, none of my usual resources know much!
Bolton's Net Spending: Between £1.5mil and £2.2mil