By Mark Heys
August 26 2005

Will he stay or will he go?, that has been the question asked by many of Bolton Wanderers supporters about Stelios Giannakopoulos this month and the latest is that he will be staying according to Wanderers boss Sam Allardyce. Liverpool and Manchester City have been heavily linked with the Greek international over the last fortnight but Allardyce confirms that he is closer than ever in securing the 31-year old winger to a Bolton future that goes beyond next season.

"Well I think the chances (of Stelios signing a new deal) are bigger and better now. We've made a great offer to him and I'm confident that he'll accept the offer. He tells me that he's always wanted to stay at the club and now we've come up with what we consider to match his terms I just hope he'll accept it so we can get on with what matters most and that is playing football." Allardyce told the official site

"I want him to stay and the lads want him to stay. He says that he loves the place so we hopefully have got over those difficulties and he'll put pen to paper and finally put a stop to all the speculation."

Giannakopoulos played a starring role for Bolton as he scored the winning goal during Wednesday night's 2-1 victory over Newcastle United at the Reebok Stadium.