Bolton Wanderers are very keen to get Matt Mills off their wage bill, but so far Leeds haven’t made a formal enquiry about signing the player.
I’m starting to lose count of the number of former Reading players that we’ve been linked with by various newspapers, but so far it’s at least five or six. As Brian McDermott is known to be looking for another central defender and Bolton have let it be known that they want to get rid of Mills, one or two newspapers have put two and two together and decided that we’re likely to make an approach for the 26-year-old.
But one stumbling block could be the cost, with Mills currently believed to be on around £25,000 a week and Bolton looking for a transfer fee of around £1million. The Reebok mob want to raise some additional funds for a major overhaul of their squad this summer, but Leeds won’t be able to match his current wages within our current pay structure.
Reading signed Mills from Doncaster for £2million in Mills in 2009 and for a time he was Brian McDermott’s captain at the Berkshire club, but his career seems to have stalled since he moved from the Madejski Stadium. He went to Leicester for £5million in 2011, but fell out of favour after a fall-out with Nigel Pearson, and he hasn’t fared much better after moving on to Bolton 12 months ago.
If McDermott really is interested in signing Mills then perhaps we could take advantage of Bolton’s desire to get him off their wage bill by offering a lower fee than the £1 million they’re after. And I’ve no doubt that Mills will be keen to revive his career under the manager who had faith in him during his successful spell at Reading, so maybe he’ll settle for a cut in wages in return for first team football.
McDermott hasn’t confirmed or denied that he is interested in Mills, saying only that he has some targets in mind but won’t say publicly who they are. I don’t normally favour getting cast-offs from other clubs in our division, but if McDermott knows how to get the best out of Mills and we can negotiate a deal at a reasonable price then it might just work in our favour. We’ll just have to wait and see if it happens.