Bolton Wanderers set to seal £700k Liverpool transfer | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers are reportedly set to sign Liverpool youngster for a fee of £700,000.

Bolton Wanderers have returned to the Championship after a long time out of the second-tier and the Trotters are getting down to business extremely quickly.

Bolton confirmed their promotion to the Championship at the weekend as they hammered Stockport County by four goals to one at Wembley Stadium in the League One play-off final.

A day later, Wanderers’ squad and accompanying staff celebrated their success with a civic reception at Bolton Town Hall and the partying continued on.

It has been a long wait for Bolton to get back to a level where their supporters will believe that the club belongs – but it doesn’t appear as though the club are waiting around and stalling on any business that needs conducting.

In fact, just a day after that celebration in Bolton, their retained list came out and links to new signings began, with David Watson of Kilmarnock a prominent one, and now it seems as though the Whites are set to land another key target.

Bolton set to sign Luca Stephenson from Liverpool

According to Alan Nixon, via his Patreon, Bolton Wanderers have won the race to sign highly-rated Liverpool youngster Luca Stephenson.

It has been reported by Nixon that the newly-promoted Trotters are set to fork out around £700,000 for the versatile defensive midfielder, who has spent the last two seasons on loan at Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.

It had previously been suggested that Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers had been interested in the signing of Stephenson and so that would suggest it is a bit of a coup for Bolton.

Nixon says that Stephenson, after that prolonged loan spell at Tannadice, is now keen on a permanent move, with Bolton swooping to provide that for the 22-year-old.

Stephenson, once in the Sunderland academy before moving to Liverpool in 2018, has played in the EFL before, too, with a loan spell at Barrow a couple of seasons ago and he will provide competition for the likes of Josh Sheehan, Ethan Erhahon and Xavier Simons in the middle of the park, while also able to play at both centre-back and at right-back.

A busy summer beckons for Steven Schumacher at Bolton

More or less in the immediate aftermath of their promotion at Wembley, with the celebrations still in full swing, it was confirmed that Bolton would not be retaining the likes of George Johnston and Jordi Osei-Tutu, as well as Kyle Dempsey and Carlos Mendes Gomes.

The release of Johnston and Osei-Tutu in particular raised some eyebrows within the Bolton fanbase, with a suggestion that the Whites are set to be quite ambitious upon their return to the Championship.

As well as those two departing, the club also gave a thankful farewell to their seven loanees from the back end of the campaign: Rob Apter, Mason Burstow, Corey Blackett-Taylor, Ibrahim Cissoko, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Marcus Forss and Johnny Kenny – with no indication that any talks of returns had begun or were set to begin.

As well as that, Bolton confirmed the sale of Szabolcs Schon to Gyori earlier this week and so something of a rebuild, akin to last summer where there were 14 new signings, is set to occur once again.

Sporting Director Fergal Harkin and Head of Recruitment Jimmy Dickinson appear set for a busy few months but Bolton are acting fast with both Luca Stephenson and David Watson now reportedly set to sign on in Lancashire.