7:00am Saturday 27th June 2009
By Marc Iles
WANDERERS have been knocked back by Swansea after making their first bid for Dutch ace Ferrie Bodde.
The Whites made a formal offer of around £2.5million to the Championship club but their advances were rejected out of hand by Swans chairman, Huw Jenkins — who rates the 27-year-old midfielder at closer to £5m.
“We received a written offer from Bolton yesterday,” he confirmed. “The offer was worth around £2.5m.
“We believe Ferrie is worth a lot more than that and as a result we officially turned the offer down today. In fact, we do not want to sell any of our players.”
Bodde’s former club, ADO Den Haag, are due 50 per cent of any transfer fee, leaving the Swans desperate to negotiate the best deal possible in order to find a suitable replacement.
But it is not thought the £5m tag placed on the player by his chairman will be reached, with the player desperate to play top-flight football.
Gary Megson has played it cool in the market so far this summer, refusing to rush into deals for fear of being drawn into a bidding war.
The only confirmed cash offer so far has come for West Brom’s Paul Robinson, with his £500,000 offer still well short of the Baggies £1m valuation.
The Wanderers manager made his move for Bodde yesterday amid reports that former Swansea boss Roberto Martinez, now at neighbours Wigan Athletic, could also be closing in on the former Dutch Under-23 international.
Swansea have just appointed Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa at their helm, and were hoping to give their new boss a chance to see his players in action before entering into negotiations with other clubs.
The squad return to training on Monday but Bodde has been given extra time off in Holland, where he is recuperating from a serious knee injury that kept him out of action for the second half of last season.
Wanderers are likely to up the ante over the weekend, with Megson regarding the midfielder as the ideal man to bring more creativity and goals from the centre of the park.
Despite showing great promise in the first 18 months of his career in England, Bodde has not figured for the Swans since November when he sustained a serious knee ligament injury. But has now been given a clean bill of health.
“I’m doing really well,” he said earlier this month. “My knee is fine now.
“I finally got to kick the ball around with [physio] Richie Evans. It felt great and I’m looking forward to getting back into proper training.
“I’m running without pain as well and it is just a case of getting fit again. After that I just have to be careful because I never want to go through that sort of nightmare again.”
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