Youri Djorkaeff could have played his last game for Bolton Wanderers after manager Sam Allardyce confirmed that the French World Cup winner was still to accept the new contract which was put to him at the start of the summer.
The 36-year old joined the Trotters from Kaiserlautern in February 2002 and has been a huge crowd favourite during his time in England helping the Wanderers to twice avoid relegation and also acheive it's best ever finish in four decades last term.
“Youri has not accepted the offer we made and it looks like he will not be coming back to us,” Allardyce said.
“It just adds to a difficult summer because after winning just once in our first 10 games for the last two seasons, the one thing I was anxious to avoid was bringing in new players just before the seasons starts.
Allardyce also reaffirmed his frustration at missing out on a number of targets during the close season claiming that potential new recruits are forced to look elsewhere due to the lack of cash being made available at the Reebok Stadium and the fact that other clubs can offer better payment packages.
“As soon as we secured our Premiership status in May, I went out to sign four players and failed to get any of them. Then we had another eight targets, came very close with some of them, and couldn't complete those deals either. In this era, players want as much as they can get.Sometimes they just take your offer to someone else in order to secure a better deal at another club.
Big Sam also defended his decision to recruit players at the tail end of their career stating that the club has no option but to bring in experienced quality players such as Gary Speed and Les Ferdinand to boost the squad due to the financial state of the club.
“Once my squad is complete, the fans might complain about the ages of some of the players but I want quality, and unfortunately, in terms of what we can afford, it has to be quality that is in the twilight stages of its career.”