Trotters in frame to sign Ricketts

23 July 2009 17:44
The Tigers have revealed few details of the approach for the Wales international but the 27-year-old is understood to have met with Bolton officials on Thursday and undergone a medical. Ricketts, who is out of contract next summer, has also been linked with Everton and Portsmouth. Manager Phil Brown told BBC Radio Humberside: "We've accepted an offer from a Premier League club and it gets up to our evaluation of Sam. We have allowed him to go and talk to this club." Ricketts made 35 appearances for the Tigers last season, mostly in the full-back positions. Brown claims he does not especially want to sell the player but had challenged him to earn a new contract. He said: "I don't particularly want to get rid, I said I wanted a little more consistency in performance. "It was provided towards the end, the last couple of games, but I need that for 38 games from whoever - it doesn't matter if it is Sam Ricketts or whoever. "I put that to Sam in his appraisal at the start of the season, 'Give me 10 games and if we get the consistency we got at the end of the season there will be a contract on the table'." In terms of recruitment, Brown has endured a frustrating summer in the transfer market, missing out on deals for strikers Michael Owen, Marc-Antoine Fortune, Fraizer Campbell and Daryl Murphy. They are now hoping for a positive response from their latest target, Bobby Zamora, after meeting with the £5million-rated Fulham forward this week. Brown said: "We have put a contract on the table, a very lucrative contract in terms of what we think of Bobby Zamora. "We are standing firm on it, this is our evaluation of Bobby Zamora, end of story. "The opposition always begs to differ. We are in that no man's land again, awaiting a response. "I have not put a timescale on it. We're giving him time to think about it, it will probably be in the next 24 hours." Brown also played down links with veteran Mark Viduka, a free agent after leaving Newcastle at the end of last season, insisting there has been no contact. However, the prospect of signing the former Leeds and Middlesbrough striker has not been completely ruled out. "A fit Mark Viduka is some I would be interested in for sure," Brown said.

Source: Team_Talk