THERE is an assumption the merry-go-round on transfer deadline day is complicated by a procession of agents driving a hard bargain and holding clubs to ransom.

Clearly, as Lee Clark juggled what he claimed was a dozen deals as the clock ticked down last Thursday, he will have had his hands full.

But the loan signing of Wigan midfielder Josh Laurent was probably as straightforward as it gets.

The 22-year-old admits to having his heart set on joining Bury for two weeks before the deal was eventually done, two hours before the window closed. And he put his most trusted adviser on the case to get it over the line – his dad.

“I haven’t got an agent, it was my dad, Bert,” said the London-born youngster.

“It’s my dad that sorts everything out.

“He was just talking to Lee then back to me and I was just waiting around, basically, just at home, ready with my shoes on waiting to come here.

“No-one is going to have my interests more at heart than my dad, he’s never going to leave me out in the cold, but it wasn’t easy.

“There were a few other clubs in for me but I have been trying to come here for a couple of weeks now. It was hard to get it going, it was a lot of hard work for my dad but in the end Wigan let me go. Lee has done a lot of hard work to get me here as well. I wanted to come here and that was it.”

Clark is certainly taken with the young man, not just because of his pace and power, but also his attitude.

Bury obviously suffered late disappointment against Scunthorpe on his debut, but Laurent was impressed with what he saw from his team-mates and is determined to make the most of his season-long stay at the club.

“I enjoyed it,” said the former Brentford trainee, who played the majority of last season in the first team at Hartlepool before Wigan swooped in January, going on to play mainly in the under-23s for the Latics.

“It was good to get back out there playing in football that means something,” he said. “There were a lot of positives, I think.

“Of course, the result was a big disappointment. The lads are disappointed but it was my first game and from what I saw there wasn’t much in it.

“I thought we were the better team and I thought we had better chances as well. On a different day we could have been 3-0 up before they scored.”

While he was philosophical about the result, Laurent is not a young man who will just be happy to develop and grow at Bury before returning to his parent club a better player.

“First and foremost I want to play, but also I want to win,” he said.

“I think everyone here wants to win. I just want to be part of a winning team and with the signings Lee has made he’s made that clear and I want to be part of it.”

Fans were given a first glimpse of the new signing on the right of midfield, and while his skill and athleticism suit the role, he admitts he had only played on the wing “a couple of times”.

In the long term he hopes to switch to the middle, but knows he will have to earn the right to be given a central role.

“I play in the middle and that’s where he has brought me in to play, but Lee pulled me into his office on my first day and asked ‘can I do a job on the right’ and I said ‘you can play me wherever you want’. I feel I can do a job in most positions.

“I’ve played on the right a couple of times, not too many though, but I don’t mind it, I can do it.

“In the centre of midfield I can play both attacking or holding roles.

“At Hartlepool last season it was more of a box-to-box. At Wigan I’ve played deep this season and I’ve played high, whatever the gaffer wants me to do I will do it and I will do it to the best of my ability.”