Stunning £19m Wrexham transfer move should put Bolton Wanderers & Steven Schumacher on red alert | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers should be well aware of Wrexham's pursuit Sidiki Cherif as the Trotters try and bring in Ryan Hardie.

Wrexham somewhat broke the footballing community as news emerged of their pursuit of French forward Sidiki Cherif — but it should have also piqued the interest of Bolton Wanderers and manager Steven Schumacher.

It has been reported that the Red Dragons are interested in signing teenage Angers attacker Sidiki Cherif, with a fee in the region of £19 million being touted for his services — and there's an ensuing battle with Crystal Palace too.

Wrexham, under the management of Phil Parkinson, have earned three successive promotions from the National League to the Championship, and now they are challenging for the top six and the play-off places in the second-tier.

Following their League One promotion last season, Wrexham set about a very busy summer transfer window with some more reasonably cost-effective additions eventually ramping up into quite a big spending couple of months.

The final couple of weeks of the window saw Wrexham bring in Wales international duo Nathan Broadhead and Kieffer Moore, as well as Callum Doyle, Ben Sheaf and Dom Hyam; all for relatively hefty fees.

The low-key part of their summer, towards the beginning, saw the signings of Danny Ward, Liberato Cacace, George Thomason and Josh Windass as well as their first signing of the summer, Ryan Hardie.

Hardie arrived from Plymouth Argyle for a fee of £700,000, but the now injured Scotsman has found himself down the pecking order in attack at the Racecourse Ground.

League One promotion hopefuls Bolton Wanderers, who have been struggling for a regular supply of goals for a number of months now, should now be eyeing up the 28-year-old ahead of the February 2 transfer deadline, and the potential arrival of Cherif could have the knock-on effect of Hardie moving to the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

Ryan Hardie would be a massive coup for Bolton Wanderers if they could land him

Having brought in another striker deemed surplus to requirements by Wrexham in the summer, Sam Dalby, Bolton fans may be a little concerned about targeting Ryan Hardie given how much Dalby has struggled for the Trotters.

However, Hardie represents a much better calibre of player than Dalby, with much better pedigree in the EFL and is someone that should perhaps be guaranteed of playing above League One.

The last couple of seasons has seen Hardie, who had hit double figures in back-to-back campaigns in the third-tier for Plymouth, hit double figures again in successive seasons but this time for a struggling team down at the bottom end of the table in the Championship.

His impressive form and performances were such that the ambitious and big-spending Wrexham believed he would be a focal point of their second division campaign, prior to their late summer splurge.

Circumstances beyond Hardie’s control has led to him being way down Parkinson’s pecking order, with the likes of Moore, Broadhead and Windass among those preferred in the final third at Wrexham, as well as Jay Rodriguez and Sam Smith. His limited game time will only become even tougher to come by with the potential arrival of Cherif.

Essentially, though, Hardie is a striker that can more than hold his own and even thrive in the Championship. Six months ago he was signed for a hefty fee and Bolton would, by virtue of fortuitous circumstances for the Whites, be landing a major coup should Hardie move up to Lancashire.

Not only would the relationship between Steven Schumacher and Hardie — with Hardie having found his best form when firing Schumacher’s Pilgrims to the League One title — be a worthwhile reunion for all parties, Hardie is also someone that Bolton desperately need.

Wanderers started the season with strong performances that were often undermined by a profligacy in attack and a lack of endeavour and effectiveness at the back.

The autumn saw results begin to turn and Bolton push right towards the top two but a woeful month and a half or so has led to automatic promotion again being fanciful at this stage, albeit not out of the question.

Bolton’s switch to a back three could have solved the soft centre of their defence with back-to-back clean sheets in the two games since Schumacher deployed the wing-back system.

Between the boxes, everything is fairly pretty and actually quite dominant, but the final third remains an issue with Dalby having failed to provide much threat in the box throughout the season and Mason Burstow massively tailing off, with the Hull City loanee scoring seven goals by the start of October but only notching once since then, which came in Saturday's 2-1 win over Leyton Orient.

Beyond that, Bolton have no other out-and-out striking options, with John McAtee himself declaring that he wants to be a so-called ‘number ten’, while Victor Adeboyejo has been shipped on to Mansfield Town.

If Hardie is pushed further down at Wrexham with their signing of Cherif, then Bolton should be ready to pounce on a player that could well transform their aspirations in the second-half of the campaign — and Schumacher should be using his past link up with the Scotsman to push ahead with a deal.