Tudor slipping from Trotters' grasp

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce fears he will miss out in his bid to bring Igor Tudor to the Reebok Stadium.

A loan deal has been agreed with Juventus but it appears the Croatia defender is having cold feet about making the switch.

“We have not seen the player arrive in this country, “ Allardyce told Sky Sports.

“It might be the fact that he thinks that we are not quite big enough for him. He is a player we would have liked and we have tracked him for a long time.”

Allardyce admitted he was interested in signing Didi Hamann but only if Liverpool had swooped for Stelios Giannakopoulos.

The Bolton boss said: “There was the rumour about Stelios going to Liverpool, so in the end I gave Rafa (manager Rafael Benitez) a ring and said if you are going to go for him is there any chance of doing a swap deal?

“I wondered if that might be a possibility. But in the end we signed Stelios on a four-year deal so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”