I feel quite sorry for Bolton really, they are a club that I have began to quite like since they brought in Owen Coyle.
I can’t help but question the character of Johan Elmander though, the guy was rubbish for years and Bolton stood by him and gave him time to find form, now that he has found his goalscoring feet he has decided that the Wanderers are no longer the club for him, pretty poor attitude if you ask me (rant over).
Coyle is preparing for life without Elmander should a deal not be negotiated and the man he is looking at to replace the Swede is prolific Belgian goalscorer Jelle Vossen – for those of you not too hot on Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League, here’s a bit of background.
Vossen came through the youth ranks of top flight side Racing Genk, who he joined in 2005 when he was 16. He progressed well and made his first appearance for the first team in 2007, but it was the 2009-2010 season that he really came to prominence. He spent that year on loan with Cercle Brugge also in the top flight, and during that season he notched up 6 goals in 11 appearances, not a bad return.
This season he has been prolific for Genk and is currently the top goal scorer in the Belgian league and has scored 17 goals in 22 appearances, 13 of which he managed to score in just the first 9 games of the season – it really has been explosive form that has attracted interest from many clubs.
Everton and Aston Villa looked at the player extensively and came close to moving for the player in September last year, both parties thinking that £5million could secure the striker, well it now appears that Bolton have also joined the race. Since he has proved that the start to the season was not just a goal scoring fad it is thought that interest in the player could be high this Summer.
Talksport claim that Genk value the player at £2.5million, but that must surely be someway wide of the mark considering he was valued at £5million at the start of the season. It would be more realistic to say that the striker might cost somewhere around the £6million mark since he also signed a long term contract at the start of the season.
Should Elmander leave, Bolton will clearly be in the market for a replacement and working on a shoe string, £5-6million in the modern game is not a large amount of money, so it could be a deal that would be attractive. Could he cut it in the Premier League however? Well that is one for Owen Coyle to assess, personally if given time, I don’t see why not.
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