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Remember that rumor about Bolton Wanderers wanting Bradley Wright-Phillips on loan? It seemed improbable at the time, and we haven't heard anything about it since. BWP himself appears to have his mind on MLS.
— Brad Wright-Phillips (@TheRealBWP) January 15, 2015
News out of England provides an interesting thought as to what might have been behind the rumor: Shaun Wright-Phillips has apparently turned down a move to Bolton.
Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp has said he's advised SWP to move on, but his current contract is simply too lucrative for interested clubs to be able to entice the out-of-favor winger away from QPR.
SWP's father is not too convinced by Redknapp's reasoning.
@swp29 your managers reasons
— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) January 16, 2015
For New York Red Bulls fans, it would appear the BWP-to-Bolton rumor may have been based on a plan to get the brothers Wright-Phillips back on the field together in the service of a Championship club that could use a boost (the team is 16th in the table heading into the January 17 round of fixtures).
Or maybe it was just a case of the newspapers naming the wrong Wright-Phillips.
Either way, news SWP was heading to Bolton might have given the rumor that BWP was also traveling in that direction greater credibility. The news that the older Wright-Phillips is not joining the Trotters has the opposite effect: the far-fetched notion RBNY was ready to loan its star striker just got even less believable.