News Round Up

We've had a bit of a quiet week, maybe out because of the disappointment at St. Andrews. First of all, let's welcome Ricky Gardner back into the squad. As I'm sure you remember, he went out to Preston on a month long loan, which really is a silly period of time. I didn't think that he would be coming back to Bolton, but I suppose with the mini-personnel crisis we've been sent into, the gaffer will take anyone he can get. Not that we really need another left winger. Oh well, perhaps he'll step up in the center.

In other news, our reserves beat Blackpool 3-0. While this is good news in itself, it's made better by the fact that both Zat Knight and Rodrigo Moreno played 45 minutes. It appears that Zat will be fit to play West Ham this Saturday, a timely return as Wheater has been collecting yellow cards like they're going out of style (they're not, if you were wondering David). As mystery man, Quentin X, pointed out yesterday it's surprising that Rodrigo hasn't gotten more time, although the brace he scored may convince Coyle otherwise. Scoring goals has not been Bolton's forte of late, and some fresh(ish) blood might help. As much as I'm thankful for Elmander's contributions this season, he just doesn't have the consistency to earn a consistent start. Give the lad a go.

Speaking of Elmander that brings us to the next story. The Teasing Swede still hasn't made it clear whether or not he wants to stay. I'm not sure how I feel on the subject as he is our top scorer but is also an incredibly frustrating player. Coyle "would love him to stay" but apparently Elmander hasn't made any statements as to his future. He has been flexible in his role, playing at what is clearly a less favoured for the good of the team, which is very nice, but I'm just not sure what club is going to be looking for a 29 year old striker with his record. We'll see, I suppose.

Lastly, there is less than a week to buy your semi-final tickets! We've sold around 25,000 of our 32,000 allocation, but it would be great for Wanderers to fill the place up. The tickets are now on open sale, so what's stopping you?