Transfer news - Bolton Wanderers talent Ronan Darcy set for loan move to Norway

RONAN Darcy is set to follow Dennis Politic out of the door on loan at Wanderers.

The young midfielder is set to sign for a Norwegian second-tier club until December to gain some first team experience.

Darcy has not featured for the Bolton first team since last December but after a promising pre-season was named on the bench against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup.

Fellow academy graduate Dennis Politic signed a season-long loan deal with Port Vale earlier today and Darcy’s move was meant to be rubber-stamped at the end of last week.

Ian Evatt explained that a change in Norway’s Covid laws provided an unexpected obstacle at the weekend when the midfielder flew to the capital, Oslo.

“He had a bit of a rough weekend, bless him,” the manager explained. “It looks like that’s going to be resolved in the next day or two, so fingers crossed.

“He flew out to Norway on Friday and they changed their Covid protocols to a deep red, which what they class the UK, so anyone arriving from the UK has to quarantine, that’s fine and we know that anyway.

“But also if they’re going into employment in Norway, the club needed to apply for a work permit for him. Because the change was so immediate, they didn’t get chance to do it, so basically they rejected his entrance into Norway. The poor lad had to spend hours in an airport, fly back and then they’ve now applied for his work permit this morning, so I’m guessing that he’ll be back out on a flight either later today or tomorrow morning.

“I spoke to him over the weekend and he was in good spirits, he saw the funny side which is great. It is a valuable learning experience, and I must give him huge amounts of credit for a) having the appetite to go and play abroad and test himself, but b) having gone through that to still want to do it, fair play to him.”

Asked if Darcy and Politic are supportive of Evatt’s view that they need more experience before challenging for a regular first team spot at Bolton, the manager added: “They have to understand. Dennis in particular has missed an entire year of football and development and it was a big ask for him.

“He has done incredibly well with his rehabilitation to get back from the injury like he has done and have no adverse effects is amazing, but in that meantime, this club has moved on.

“We have signed players and we’ve had to, which in turn has unfortunately moved him for now down the pecking order, so he understands that he needs to go out and play football.

“Port Vale is a club with Flicker (David Flitcroft) there that knows Dennis well, so will take care of him and knows his strengths, so it’ll benefit him. When Dennis comes back hopefully he’ll be a lot closer to our first team.”

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