Bolton have agreed a loan deal with Juventus for their Croatia defender Igor Tudor.
MikeEgerton/Empics
Igor Tudor: One-year loan.
Wanderers chairman, Phil Gartside revealed the deal after seeing Bolton drawn against Bulgarian team Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the UEFA Cup first round, the club's first game ever in Europe.
The Trotters, who also tied up star midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos on a new three-year contract today, are now in talks with Tudor to try to finalise terms with the 27-year-old, who can play in either central defence or central midfield.
Gartside said: 'We have agreed it with Juventus and we have been talking to the player for a couple of days.
'It's just a question of getting him to Bolton and telling him what Bolton is all about and if we can do that then we will have got a good signing.
'He has three years on his contract and Juventus are not keen to let him out on a permanent deal but they are quite prepared to let him out on a loan basis.
'However we have a good record whether they are permanent or not that when we bring a player into the club it's very rare that they leave. Even with our loan players within a year they have always signed and carried on playing.'
The news that Bolton were closing in on Tudor followed hot on the heels of the
new Stelios contract which will delight Allardyce.
Only two days ago, after Stelios had scored in the midweek win over Newcastle,
the Bolton boss admitted he was 'not confident' of keeping his man.
But this morning Allardyce revealed his club had tabled a much improved offer
- which hours later the 31-year-old was delighted to accept.
Now Gartside and Allardyce will turn their attention to persuading Tudor to
join the club.
'He has been on the list for quite some time and Sam's quite excited about it
if we can clinch it,' said Gartside.
'It's not quite a done deal yet but we are hoping it will be concluded in the
next couple of days.'
