Wigan permitted to talk to Maynard, but not about football (or fishing)
Monday 30 January 2012 09:30
The in-demand Bristol City striker is set for non-football related talks with Wigan, so says Back of the Net's John Foster...
Bristol City have given Wigan Athletic permission to talk to highly-rated frontman Nicky Maynard, FourFourTwo.com understands, so long as the Premier League side promise to ‘stay off the topic of football’.
“Wigan have expressed an interest in Nicky”, Robins manager Derek McInnes confirmed to our reporter. "We’re happy for them to come down and have a chat with him, but if I hear the words ‘football’, ‘contract’, or ‘transfer’, I’ll have to ask them to leave.”
“There will be no touching, either”, he added.
A list of approved conversation topics, seen by FourFourTwo.com earlier today, includes motoring, the weather, Maynard’s recent holiday in Guadeloupe, and the possible reunification of the Sugababes’ original lineup.
An attempt by Wigan boss Roberto Martinez to add ‘fishing’ to the list was refused, with City officials suspicious that Martinez would use the opportunity to make reference to Maynard’s potential strike partner, Conor Sammon.
Similarly, Maynard’s stated desire to talk to Martinez about his favourite television programme, Dark Wing Duck, was dismissed when Ashton Gate officials noticed that the line in the theme tune, “when there’s trouble you call DW”, could be interpreted as a come-and-get-me plea to Wigan chairman Dave Whelan.
Wigan have been frustrated in this season’s transfer window, failing to negotiate a move for Dutch striker John Verhoek after he disagreed with Whelan over the best method for poaching eggs, while the transfer of Leeds ace Ross McCormack in early January broke down acrimoniously, with Martinez denying that the phrase ‘taking down the Christmas tree’ was a coded reference to tactics.
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