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The time of year where contract talks heat up is fast approaching, if not already here. Bolton Wanderers are very much in that situation with a trio of important players sitting on just six months of time left in a white shirt with orange blob on the chest.
Bolton fans will certainly want the trio tied up with new deals but manage Dougie Freedman made it clear that he will wait until the Trotters' final league position isn't so far up in the air. Despite that, we know that the have been two players already offered extensions: one that has accepted and one, a member of the trio, that has told the club "no thanks."
Marcos Alonso
The young defender came to Bolton in 2010 after Owen Coyle purchased him for £2 million from Real Madrid. For two of the last two-and-a-half years, Alonso did not get much of a look in with the side, and when he did, he was largely inconsistent. It's really after Dougie Freedman to over at Bolton Wanderers and allowed Marcos Alonso a steady run in the team that he has shown his class. Alonso kept Crystal Palace and Everton, among other teams, quiet and allowed them nearly no chances on his flank.
He's been a hot property of late with Swansea and Nottingham Forest linked as well as Bolton officially rejecting a Fiorentina bid for him. In fact, the club opened contract extension talks with Alonso and his family in 2011 but that offer was rejected. If the club don't sort out another contract offer for him, they will be resigned to either selling him in the next five days and losing £1.5 million on his transfer fees or letting him go in the summer for free.
It would be a shame to lose one of the club's most promising young players just when he is really starting to come good.
Kevin Davies
He's Mr. Bolton Wanderers and his time at the club is quickly running out. At 35 years old, Super Kev isn't the spry chicken that he once was but he still has a major part to play at the club in on-pitch capacity.
After a very successful start to the season, Davies has quieted down in terms of goalscoring (he hasn't put a ball into the back of the net since Blackburn away in November) but we've often gone on about how important Kevin is to the squad even without scoring. The fact is that SKD is really built for a two-forward system and that showed against Crystal Palace. Davies consistently won the balls in the air and knocked them down but there was no one running onto the passes. However, no one's saying that Kevin Davies should be starting every match, in fact far from it... but that's a different debate for a different time.
At the time of writing, Kevin Davies is sitting on 399 appearances for Bolton and he'll reach his 400th for the club at the next match (joining just 20 men before him). His current deal runs out just a week before he hits ten years at Bolton Wanderers. Should his deal not be extended (for whatever insane reason), that would mean that Kevin Davies doesn't qualify for a Bolton testimonial and that would be a travesty.
The fan favorite received a standing ovation from three sides of the Reebok Stadium on Saturday against Everton when he made his home return after nearly two years away from the ground. There are few players not named Stu Holden that would have been privy to that kind of reception and it shows just how important the American midfielder is to the club and its fans.
Again, his contract is out in just six months and Bolton Wanderers supporters will feel that they simply have not had enough time with Holden. He came to the club in 2010 and has made just 28 appearances since then but it would have been a lot more without the injuries. Between his broken leg and knee injuries, all of which were unlucky, Holden missed 25 months of 36 (under contract) of play.
Bolton fans simply have not had enough time with Holden, a player that can absolutely boss the game with his ability to hold the ball, win it back, and send an incisive pass in. I don't want to say that Holden owes the club and its fans because he certainly doesn't but it would be absolutely awful to let him go now.