WANDERERS are closing in on their first signing of the January transfer window with a deal to sign Peterborough United’s Joel Randall now in the advanced stages.

Posh rejected a first written offer from Bolton and one other Championship club last week but have since accepted an improved bid made at the end of last week.

Randall, who was one of Ian Evatt’s top targets in the summer, is now said to be negotiating personal terms over a transfer which is likely to exceed £1million.

Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson confirmed at the weekend that the attacking midfielder looked likely to have played his last game for the club, having left him out of the squad to face Wrexham.

It is understood that Posh are keen to recoup the £1.2m they paid Exeter City for Randall in August 2021 and insisting upon bonuses linked to appearances and promotion, although the money offered up front is not as much as it was in the summer, when reports claimed a fee of between £1.5m and £2million had been tabled.

The two clubs failed to reach an agreement in the summer which led to Randall signing a new three-year contract. But in what has turned out to be a rocky season for the London Road men, he has failed to find his best form and has not started any of the club’s last three games in League One.

Randall had been a major player for Posh in their run to the play-off semi-finals last season, scoring the last of his 12 goals against Bolton in a 3-3 draw on the final day.

Quite where the 25-year-old will fit in Wanderers’ squad should the transfer go through as expected is the next question, with the likelihood being he will take Kyle Dempsey’s place in the 22-man squad registered with the EFL.

Dempsey has been struggling with a knee injury and it has not yet been confirmed by the club whether he will miss the rest of the campaign. If the prognosis means he will need three months or more to recover, Ian Evatt has already indicated that he could free up one spot for a new signing.

The Bolton boss brought Aaron Morley back from his loan spell at Wycombe and used him as a holding midfield player for most of Saturday’s 2-1 win at Exeter City. Later in the game, however, he was pushed up as a number eight to replace George Thomason, eventually scoring the winning goal in stoppage time.

Evatt said: “Aaron looked confident, he looked fit and he was back to the Aaron Morley that we had in the first 18 months here, really, and that is exactly where we wanted him. It is why we put him out on loan, he can be a huge player for us.

“George was on a yellow card and we felt like getting Aaron slightly higher could give him some shooting opportunities, he is deadly around the box. And as we saw with the goal his final delivery is excellent too.

“Getting him a bit higher up the pitch helped us, I think.”