Bolton Wanderers Report Sheffield Wednesday Over Mark Davies Transfer

Mark Davies' transfer to Sheffield Wednesday has been nothing short of a farce. First we were told he'd be leaving for a fee believed to be in the region of £750,000 - peanuts to most clubs, but a sizeable chunk to us - but that hasn't happened. Then it was reported that he wouldn't be leaving at all because Sheffield Wednesday couldn't afford his astronomical wages, which supposedly set us back around £850,000 per year.

Davies' agent, Will Salthouse, was trying to push through a move to Fulham after the Wednesday deal broke down, but then, rising like a phoenix from the ashes, the club from the steel city came back to Davies and said they wanted him again. During Wanderers' 3-2 defeat at Hillsborough on Tuesday, the clubs agreed that we'd pay off part of his outstanding contract, of which there are 18 months left, to push a deal through. Said deal would see Davies leave on a free transfer, with very little severance cash paid to us. I guess we just need him off the wage bill, and fast.

But here comes the weird part. Wednesday requested that Davies, our longest serving senior player, should not be involved in Tuesday's game, threatening to pull out of the deal if he was included in Neil Lennon's match day squad. After Wanderers' contacted the Football League to report such skulduggery, Wednesday came out and said they were considering calling the move off because of medical reasons, despite Davies never having a medical with the club and them never having access to any of his records. Dodgy. Very dodgy indeed.

The good news is that both parties seem to have kissed and made up, so the deal is back on. Happy days.

In other news, another Wanderer who looked set to leave us for good has now decided to stay. 20-year-old first team protege Zach Clough has rejected a big money move to fellow Championship strugglers Bristol City in favour of staying up north and fighting relegation with Lennon & Co. Huge respect for that, Zach, but I can't help but feel we won't see you at the Macron come next season.

Lennon has also expressed concerns over being kept in the dark about his players' futures, insisting he has no involvement in current transfer dealings.

Speaking to The Bolton News, he said:

It’s becoming farcical because there is no information. We’ve lost Mark Davies for the last two games and I don’t know if a deal has been done or not. He could have been playing for me and I can’t afford to lose that quality of player. It could be the same with Zach – he’s been down to Bristol for talks and nothing has happened. It’s becoming a pain in the neck, to tell the truth. You don’t know what team you are picking from one game to the next.

Will we have any players left come the start of February? God only knows.