Marc Bola has left Blackpool and joined Championship side Middlesborough for an undisclosed fee the club have announced.
The left-back had a year remaining on his contract at Bloomfield having moved from Arsenal in the summer of 2018. He made forty-three appearances for the Tangerines last season in an outstanding campaign that ended with him winning both the club’s Player of the Year and Player’s Player of the Year award.
The club statement said they had turned down several bids for the twenty-one-year over the summer and offered him a new contract, but Bola was keen to take up the offer of Championship football.
The departure was expected after the Tangerines signed James Husband from Norwich last week, but many some fans were still disappointed by the news and questioned the club’s ambition. Others felt that if the money was right and the player wanted to leave the club was correct to let him go.
The transfer certainly sparked some debate on social media as the following selection of responses to the news on Twitter illustrates.
Big gain in terms of money, we would have lost him for £0 at the end of this season so it’s good to cash in
— Max Wiggans (@MaxWiggans) July 28, 2019
https://twitter.com/Par7yPoison/status/1155449213406404610?s=20
Good signing for Boro, Marc is a very good, young player. Great business for Blackpool also, just hope Grayson use the money to strengthen a few key areas of our team.
— SB🏴🍊 (@53BFC53) July 28, 2019
Good luck to the lad. Hope he makes it up to the top 👍 The right decision for sure, we definitely need to strengthen, hopefully Grayson spends it wisely.
— Alex (@AlexBedfordBFC) July 28, 2019
Big loss for us
— Phil Spinks (@PhillipSpinks) July 28, 2019
Undisclosed? No no give us a ball park figure, he was voted player of the season by both the fans and the players we should have some rough idea of what he went for, don't you think?
— Matthew holder (@Wetham_redloh) July 28, 2019
You can’t keep a player who wants to leave, wouldn’t be good for anyone
— Dan (@DanFrank585) July 28, 2019
He wanted to play in the league above. He’s only 21. He will have watched average players being recruited like the rest of us. Lack of intent will have played a part.
— BISONS (@BISONS73) July 28, 2019
Good luck @MarcBola27
We move on, use the cash too bring in a couple more https://t.co/7CMiyd7DTw sure the fee was over a mil so we should be able to get some fresh faces in. UTP— SAF (@ragnorkhan27) July 28, 2019
One of our most creative players. We wish him well but hope there is another gem out there waiting to be given his chance to prove himself.
— terminallytangerine (@terminallytang1) July 28, 2019
