Jay-Jay Urges Bolton To Strengthen

By Mark Heys
July 16 2005

Bolton captain Jay-Jay Okocha has urged the club to bring in a few more faces to enable them to compete in various competitions next season.

Okocha outlined the need for the Wanderers to have good strength in depth as the club will face the prospect of more matches next term due to the involvement in the UEFA Cup.

The former Paris Saint Germain and Fenerbache star feels that the club must find a balance to enable them to compete on both the domestic and European stage next year, and recruiting new blood is the only option as Wanderers have one of the thinnest squads in the Premier League.

"The squad needs strengthening,"

"We have been together for a while and we know each other very well but I still think we need a couple more players.

"Europe is going to be a new experience but we must not get carried away and forget to do well in the Premiership.

"We must try and find a balance but we need a big squad to do it with."

Bolton have only managed to add three players to their squad during the close season whilst having let nine others leave. El-Hadji Diouf was already with the club last term, Ali Al-Habsi will join the club in January when the Norwegian season is over, leaving Ian Walker as the only "new" face thus far.