Stu Holden contract "accepted," midfielder now has to put pen to paper

The Stu Holden contract saga has been going on for much longer than most Bolton fans would like it to. The midfielder had missed roughly two years with injury before making a cup return with Wanderers and seeing league action with Sheffield Wednesday. Speaking in an interview last week, Holden mentioned that contract talks with the Trotters had reached "end-stage negotiation" and ast the prematch presser, Dougie Freedman has backed that up.

Speaking at yesterday's pre-Bristol City press conference (via the Bolton News), the manager shed some light on the Stu Holden contract situation:

"Stuart was offered a contract the day he went to Sheffield Wednesday and he has accepted it. It isn't done yet, he hasn't signed it, but I know what he is like and he's a good man so that was the close of that event for me."

"It has been agreed - it's just signing it, really. It would take literally two minutes.

"I said ‘Stu I want you to stay, you have had a long term injury, I can't guarantee you football at the moment because of the situation we're in but I want you to sign.'

"The chairman, Phil (Gartside) got involved and spoke to the agent, fantastic, and then question two was ‘would you like to go on loan?' It was done in minutes and now it's literally paperwork."

To date, Stu has made two appearances for Sheffield Wednesday, going about 60 minutes in each. In the stretch of time since Holden went on loan to the Owls, they have had four fixtures but have (wisely) decided to keep Stu out of half of them as they came in very close succession.

At this point, Holden is not as sharp as he was prior to the injury but that was very much to be expected. He has shown flashes of the brilliance that made him a fan favorite with Bolton and the rest will come in due course. Bolton fans would be wise to remember how long it took Chung-Yong Lee to become a semblance of his old self following his own leg break last year.

Hopefully the Trotters and Stu can cross the T's, dot the I's, and put a large, swooping signature on the x-marked line.