Sammy Moves To Quel Speculation

By Mark Heys
May 31 2007

The futures of a number of Bolton Wanderers players may have come under close media scrutiny recently but Trotters manager Sammy Lee is unmoved with the reports as he says the rumours are all just part and parcel of the game.

Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf, Tal Ben-Haim, Kevin Davies and Jussi Jaaskelainen have all been linked with moves away from the club in the wake of Sam Allardyce's departure but Lee says Wanderers will have the final say about any movements in or out of the Reebok Stadium.

"There will always be speculation because we have quality players. It is indicative of how well we have done. We can't stop speculation - that's the nature of the game. " said the Bolton boss

"But if they are under contract, we will decide what happens to them."

Lee is hoping to tie Player of the Year winner Jaaskelainen down to a new contract after reports last week linked the Finnish international with a switch to newly promoted Sunderland.

"All the time there are movements going on in the background to try and ensure that we get Jussi signed up to the contract he wants.

 

"We are trying our hardest to make sure we keep possibly the best goalkeeper in the Barclays Premiership.

 

"Under the guidance of our goalkeeping coach Fred Barber, Jussi has got better each year."

The Wanderers manager also confirmed that the club are working hard to bring in reinforcements to add to the captures of Gerald Cid, Blerim Dzemaili, Jlloyd Samuel and Zoltan Harsanyi.

"All the while we are out watching players because we know full well that we need to bring more people in to supplement and augment the players that we've got here, as there will be an awful lot of fooball next year."

"Everybody is busy behind the scenes trying to recruit and get the right quality of players in.

"We've already got Jlloyd, which is superb. We want to make sure we hit the ground running when the season starts."

Meanwhile, Idan Tal has been linked with a return to Maccabi Haifa just a year after leaving the Israeli giants for the Reebok.