I should start this off with something that's not exactly fresh news, but hasn't been really reported on the Bolton Offside yet. Ricardo Gardner did go out on loan to our floundering neighbors Preston North End last week. Poor Ricky has found himself as third choice for both his preferred positions this season, behind Petrov and Taylor on the left wing, and behind Mavies and Muamba in defensive midfield, so really it's no shock that he's gone out on loan. He started for his new club a week ago today in a 2-1 loss to Leeds. There's talk of him returning to the Reebok if he impresses at Deepdale, but I would not be surprised at all if his stay at Preston became permanent. Best of luck to him.
In more loan news, Danny Ward has gone Huddersfield Town on loan for the rest of the season, and is in the squad for tonight's game at Brentford. While he prefers being a striker, Ward was brought in to cover for an injured winger. Huddersfield's manager Lee Clark said, "I like my wide men and Danny brings with him a lot of experience," which may be going a bit far. Ward did spend most of last season at loan to Swindon, and has been playing for our reserves this season, making two senior appearances as a substitute. At the tender young age of 20, Ward could use the playing time, as all of our current strikers are aging a bit. Again, best of luck to him.
Moving on to players who are still with us, three of our boys have been called up to the baby Three Lions squad! A big congratulations to Mark Davies, Fabrice Muamba, and Danny Sturridge. They will be eligible for two friendlies, one in Viborg and one just over in Preston, against Denmark and Iceland respectively. This is the last run out for our baby boys before the U-21 European Championship, and therefore the last chance for the players to impress Stuart Pearce. They've all done quite well for themselves in club shirts, and I do hope they can replicate it for the national team.
Now that we've finished with actual news, we can get back to what I really blog for, gently teasing our lovely players and their interpersonal relationships. If you follow either the Bolton Offside or Stu Holden on Twitter, you will have seen the picture he posted last Thursday of himself, Elmander, and Chungy on a quaint little bro-date at a Korean restaurant. Well it turns out that Elmander is now claiming that the Korean food/bro-chat is the secret to the FA Cup success. I'm not arguing. Maybe they should get a Korean chef at the training ground.
DISCLAIMER: Johan Elmander has never used the phrase "bro-chat" or "bro-date"