UPDATE: Wilbraham, Henry, Pratley released - Hall, Beevers, Wheater resigned!

WANDERERS will swing the axe on Aaron Wilbraham – the man whose goal secured Championship survival – along with club captain Darren Pratley and fellow midfielder Karl Henry, The Bolton News understands.

Phil Parkinson has taken a bold and decisive step in his summer rebuilding by releasing three of his most experienced players.

The Wanderers boss is targeting a younger, more energetic line-up next season and has shown little sentimentality in releasing three of last season’s most experienced heads to free room in his transfer budget.

Wilbraham’s header against Nottingham Forest ensured a dramatic last-day escape, but at 38, Parkinson took the decision not to give him an extra year after much deliberation.

Pratley was one of Wanderers’ longest-serving players, signing for the club under Owen Coyle from Swansea City in the Premier League in 2011.

The 33-year-old Londoner played 35 times last season and has worn the captain’s armband since being given the job by Neil Lennon three years ago.

He made made more than 200 appearances for the club, playing in three different divisions, and scored 17 goals.

Henry’s release may also come as some surprise to Wanderers fans, given his impact on the club’s fortunes since signing on a free transfer at the end of September.

His midfield presence proved vital as Bolton recovered from a nightmarish start but at 35, the choice had again been made to try and replace the former Wolves ball-winner with a younger player.

Henry made 33 appearances – missing just five games after his debut against Bristol City at Ashton Gate.

Parkinson’s decision to move on three big names is expected to clear the way for a new-look side next season, which he hopes will avoid the same sort of struggles at the foot of the table.

Meanwhile, Bolton have added another pre-season fixture to their schedule with a game at FC Halifax penned in for Saturday, July 14 (kick-off 3pm).

Source

It seems we are in for a busy day folks.

Thank the Lord! Pratley finally gone 

I would have kept Henry for another year though.

Norpig wrote:Thank the Lord! Pratley finally gone 

I would have kept Henry for another year though.

I agree.

David Wheater, Mark Beevers and Connor Hall staying at Bolton

WANDERERS have confirmed the club has taken up 12 month options on the contracts of David Wheater, Mark Beevers and Connor Hall.
Defensive duo Wheater and Beevers have the bedrock of Phil Parkinson’s side in the last two seasons.
Wheater is the longest-serving player on the books at Wanderers, now having made more than 200 appearances in eight years with the club.
Beevers has been virtually ever-present under Parkinson, playing more minutes than any other player in the Championship for Bolton last season.

Hall proved a breakthrough star, earning a professional debut in the FA Cup against Huddersfield Town in January.
His 22 goals at development squad level helped David Lee’s side clinch the league and play-off final double.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/16275384.Wanderers_confirm_option_on_out-of-contract_trio/

So Parky has 2 months to sign a 2nd tier standard central midfield and striker on free transfers.

Good luck Parky lad.

Perhaps the drop in effort and run of awful results after the Aston Villa game was because Ken told the central midfield he wouldn't be renewing their contracts?

It's a mistake to let Henry go in my opinion, he was the catalyst for our improvement after the poor start, and was pretty consistent for the whole season. I hope Parky has a decent replacement in mind, because without Henry we are soft as fook in central midfield.

Glad to see the back of Pratley though, he had a decent engine but that's about it. If we're to avoid another relegation battle we need better.

The surprise to me was Henry.  Pratley was nothing special, and was probably vastly overpaid whilst employed by us. Henry did seem to make the difference to our season, so it will be interesting who we replace him with.

A clear out like this is either bold or stupid - I can't decide which. Maybe they are confident we will be getting new investment to build a team from scratch? 
If not, we have to be careful what we wish for because there'd be no guarantee that incoming players bought for peanuts would be any better. I just hope there's some money on the way.

have we any players left ?????

have we any players left ?????

have we any players left ?????

bryan458 wrote:have we any players left ?????

We have 1 of each of your 3 posts. 

wanderlust wrote:A clear out like this is either bold or stupid - I can't decide which. Maybe they are confident we will be getting new investment to build a team from scratch? 
If not, we have to be careful what we wish for because there'd be no guarantee that incoming players bought for peanuts would be any better. I just hope there's some money on the way.

You can't keep players on just in case you can't find better, that's no way to progress.

As I've said, I'd have given Henry and Wilma another year, but we won't miss Pratley.

Leeds_Trotter wrote:

bryan458 wrote:have we any players left ?????

We have 1 of each of your 3 posts. 

How the F@*k did that happen ??

It seems we still have to trim the wage bill down to the bare bones (which tbh I thought we'd already done last year) in order to free up any funds at all for PP. My guess and I admit it's a guess is Ken is operating on the assumption we won't get any new money coming in this summer and he's cutting the club's financial cloth accordingly. That makes sense to me, that way if we do get new investment it's a welcome bonus that Phil might be able to use to make some genuine quality acquisitions.

To be honest I don't think there will be a mad stampede from many other clubs to sign up these three and if the worst came to the worst they may well be still available if we wanted to change our mind and want to resign them at a later date.

Like it or not we have to move on and we have to have a full competitive team on the pitch come the start of the new season and that means we simply can't wait on the off chance that someone is going to buy us as it takes something like three months for all parties to the deal (including the EPL) to do their required checks and audits before any deal can be rubber stamped and fully approved.

It's already over a month now since we won the Forest game - just to indicate how time does fly by.

I also would imagine that the likes of the Anderson's - being football agents - and Parkinson would already have a good idea of the player and squad they want and as such the releasing of players rather than simply resigning them, indicates to me at least that they are more than confident that they will be bringing in younger and (in their minds) better players.

It would surprise me if we have never heard of many of those who do sign - had anybody heard of Mark Little the footballer (not the comic) before we signed him - and on a two year contract too.

For me the test of what our new season is going to be like is if we bring it better defenders than Wheater and Beevers. If they have been signed as back ups, great, if they are intended first teamers, then its going to be another long old season again!

Karl Henry has taken to Twitter, he had this to say.

Like most would have kept Henry for another year, but we need to bring in around 10 players, so should be interesting this summer,