IAN Evatt has confirmed that ex-Scotland international Charlie Adam is training with Wanderers – but has cooled suggestion that he is about to be offered a deal.

Former Liverpool and Stoke City midfielder Adam was invited to Lostock at the start of the week following his release from Reading.

But rumours that he will be offered a playing deal are premature, insists Whites head coach, who played alongside the 34-year-old in his Blackpool days.

“I’ve known Charlie a long time and at the moment he is just training – it’s as simple as that,” he told The Bolton News.

“It’s amazing what I read sometimes, ‘Bolton throwing the salary cap out the window’.

“The truth is I have got a great relationship with Charlie and I am helping him get up to speed.”

Evatt agreed that there was an obvious upside to keeping Adam – a player with more than 500 career appearances, 200 of which were made in the Premier League – around his players.

“We have got a pretty young group, so for them to see how Charlie manages himself in training, the high standards he sets for himself, can only help them along.

“He takes good care of himself and he has that elite mentality and attitude to his profession which can only improve players around him.”

Evatt was delighted to hear the uptake of season tickets at the UniBol has been high, with around 3,000 now sold in the first 24 hours.

His target now is to ensure that the squad is capable of hitting the ground running when the competitive action kicks off against Bradford City in the Carabao Cup next month.

“I have been really pleased with the way things are going and to hear that the supporters are backing us by buying season tickets just makes us even more determined to make sure that we’ve made a good start by the time they come in to the UniBol,” he said.

Wanderers had behind-closed-doors friendly cancelled at short notice this week but the head coach has confirmed friendlies are in the pipeline against Accrington Stanley and Wigan Athletic before the start of the season.