STEVEN Schumacher believes that Johnny Kenny would have “loved” a return to Wanderers, had the club been in a position to match Preston North End’s £3million offer on deadline day.
Bolton fans were forced to swallow a bitter pill on Tuesday as the Irish striker swapped Celtic Park for Deepdale, and he could now line-up against them in the Championship.
The same could be said for fellow promotion hero Amario Cozier-Duberry, who moved from Brighton on loan to Middlesbrough, shortly after signing a new contract with the Premier League club.
Asked whether the deal “stung” the Bolton boss, he said: “Yeah it does.
“I think they were really good players for us last year. If I'm dead honest I didn't really expect to get a Amario, I thought he might have stayed with Brighton, and if he didn't stay with Brighton we knew there was interest from Wolves, West Ham apparently, and he's gone to a team who got beat in the play-off final, so there's no qualms about that.
“Jonny Kenny's a bit different, he was somebody who I spoke openly about, really liked him.
“I said at the very start, and whoever asked me the question, that I would love to work with him. I think Jonny Kenny would have loved to have come back, but, unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it happen.
“We couldn't compete with what Preston have offered him so unfortunately we didn't manage to get that one done.”
Wanderers did complete the loan signing of Auxerre striker Theo Bair, who has already had some game-time in the French top-flight this season.
Even so, Schumacher admitted the new arrival was surprised by the intensity with which his new club trained on Thursday morning.
“He did the full session which was a 10 v 10, and then Richie (Kyle) took him and Ryan Hardie for some short, sharp, intense finishing, and he said his legs were gone at the end because it's been a while since he's done that sort of stuff!
“He is player that we spoke to a while ago and up until Monday evening, really late Monday evening, we didn't think he was available because the information we were getting is he was staying in at Auxerre.
“When he was available and things transpired the way they transpired, we moved quick to try and bring him in because he's going to be a handful when he gets fully fit.
“He is ready because he played all of the pre-season games for Auxerre, he couldn't play the first league game because he was suspended but he played 20 minutes in the second league game, I believe, off the bench, so he's fit, but getting up to the intensity of this league and what the Championship brings is going to be a challenge so there's no rush, just take our time.”
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