PHIL Parkinson insists the Wanderers hierarchy is unanimous: Gary Madine will NOT be sold in the January transfer window.

Hull City became the latest player linked with the nine-goal striker, who has already been the subject of two rejected bids by Cardiff City and interest from Sunderland.

But speaking after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat against Brentford at Griffin Park the Wanderers boss claimed Madine was aware of the club’s stance and was pleased to see rumours of his exit had not affected his performance.

“Gaz played well, ran in behind, did all the stuff we asked him to do,” he told The Bolton News. “He was a real handful all game.

“His focus is great and I’d expect it to be. I don’t want to sell him and the chairman is adamant he is not going to sell him, so he’s going to be with us.

“We’re in a dogfight down the bottom, we know that, and there’s quite a few teams in there with us. We need our best players.”

David Wheater – who had championed Madine’s cause when his stock was not nearly so high at the Macron – reckons his team-mate would be nearly impossible to replace at short notice.

“There was a time when fans were on his back, people would talk to me about him and I said we needed to stick with him because he’s a top player, in fact he’s horrible to play against.

“This season he’s upped his game a bit and he’s one of the top strikers in the league.

“He wins headers but we always say he’s got the best chest in the Championship, the way he brings the ball down. He’s a big lad, can back into, but he’s got a good touch and can finish as well when he gets the opportunities.

“If Gaz does leave we’ve got Alfie – who’s a different type of player – but hopefully he does stay because we’ll need them both.”

Wanderers slipped to their first league defeat in three in West London to drop one position in the table to 21st.

“We are still out of the bottom three, so it is still in our hands,” reasoned Parkinson.

“Every time we get beat there is disappointment but we can’t get too down, there was a lot of effort out there and good things we can take away from the game.

“We deserved something out of it.”