Bolton Wanderers set to sanction transfer exit amid Mansfield Town offer | OneFootball

Striker Victor Adeboyejo could be set to leave the Toughsheet Community Stadium after failing to pin down a first team place following an injury.

Bolton Wanderers striker Victor Adeboyejo is poised to depart the League One promotion chasers, with Mansfield Town a potential suitor.

The Trotters are chasing a return to the Championship, following an absence of seven years. They had a solid first half to their season, and although a recent run of one win in their last five matches has dented their hopes of an automatic promotion place, they remain fourth in the table - albeit they are now nine points behind second-placed Lincoln City.

The January transfer window, then, is a good opportunity for them to fine-tune their first-team squad, and this means moving Adeboyejo on following three years with the club during which the striker hasn't quite found the rhythm that Bolton were hoping for.

Victor Adeboyejo set for Bolton Wanderers exit as League One rival submit offer

The Bolton News have reported that Wanderers are ready to sanction a loan move for the 27-year-old striker, with Mansfield Town putting an offer on the table to be his destination for the second half of this season.

They report that Adeboyejo has "resigned himself" to having to leave the club, three years after his arrival in the January 2023 transfer window from Burton Albion for £500,000.

Adeboyajo sustained a knee injury at the end of February which ruled him out of the remainder of Bolton's 2024-25 season, and he's unable to get near the first-team squad this time around under Steven Schumacher.

He may not have to drop down a level though to try and find game-time. Mansfield Town are also a League One club, and are currently just seven places below Bolton in the League One table in 11th under Nigel Clough.

The Bolton News also confirm that the striker's contract is due to expire in the summer, meaning that this may be the last time that the club's fans have seen him in their team's shirt. It also means that Adeboyejo could be playing to impress for a permanent contract come the end of this season, should he move on.

Moving on from Bolton could be the reboot that Victor Adeboyejo's career needs

When Victor Adeboyejo arrived at Bolton at the end of the January transfer window in 2023, the £500,000 that the club had spent on him was the most that they'd spent on anybody in a decade.

The striker started his career at Leyton Orient, before moving on to have spells with Barnsley and Burton Albion, with additional loan spells at Bristol Rovers and Cambridge United. His form throughout the first half of the 2022-23 season, when he scored 11 times in 26 matches for Burton, was enough to persuade Bolton to take a chance on him.

But it has never really worked out. Adboyejo will leave Bolton having scored just 17 goals in 99 appearances for the Trotters - not the sort of record that will stand up to much scrutiny at a club that is chasing promotion.

Now 27 years of age, Adeboyejo is in the peak years of his playing career, and this is not a time when he should be missing out on first-team football.

With his contract expiring at the end of the season - and it being unlikely that he'll receive an extension at Bolton when the end of 2025-26 comes around - the striker has half a season to impress Mansfield Town if they can get a deal done, to a point at which they could be interested in offer him a permanent deal.

Having impressed so much at Burton, he has the capability to do this. It could even turn out to be the reboot that his faltering career needs.