Old Boy Linked With Return

By Mark Heys
July 18 2005

The amount of summer speculation has gone into overdrive over the last few days as Bolton Wanderers continue to be linked with a plethoria of new players.

Celtic's John Hartson, Ousmane Dabo of Lazio, the Dutch international Andy Van Der Meyde and Greek hero Traianos Dellas have all been suggested Bolton targets over the last few days but this latest link sees a former player linked with a Reebok return.

Spanish newspaper AS is suggesting that Paris Saint Germain defender Bernard Mendy looks likely to snub a move to Real Betis in favour of a move back to Bolton on a season long loan deal.

Mendy, now a fully fledged international with France, spent the whole of the 2002-2003 season on loan to Bolton making 21 appearances. He impressed sufficiently after a shaky start but wanted to return to France to improve his international prospects.

The 23-year old had signed a contract extention with Paris until 2008 so any validity in this rumour has to be questioned. However, the Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce is still in England working on a few transfer deals and will link up with the rest of the team in the Far East later on this week, meaning that one or two deals could be in the pipeline.