Wanderers capped off a day of frustration by snapping up England Under-21 international Marvin Sordell in a smash and grab £3million deal from Watford.

It looked like being “one of those days” for Owen Coyle, who was thwarted in his efforts to land Middlesbrough’s Rhys Williams and Crystal Palace’s Wilifried Zaha.

But things clicked into gear when Sordell was pulled out of the Hornets’ squad to face Millwall at the New Den by Watford owner Laurence Bassini to take his medical.

The 20-year-old had been a target for Blackburn Rovers, West Ham and Fulham among others over the last few weeks, but the 10-goal striker looked set to move to Cardiff City until Wanderers made their late move to usurp them.

The move was only finalised in the small hours of the morning.

Sordell scored on his England Under-21 debut against Israel in September and has six caps to his name. His fee could rise to £4m if Wanderers secure their Premier League survival this season.

Coyle had, as expected, wrapped up a season-long loan move for Arsenal’s highly-rated winger Ryo Miyaichi just after lunchtime.

The Japanese 19-year old has had only limited experience at the Emirates but impressed the Wanderers boss during a loan spell at Feyenoord and for the Gunners reserves this term.

He came on as a substitute in the Whites’ Carling Cup defeat in North London back in October but will not be eligible for this evening’s game against his parent club.

“He's a very talented young player, who is quick and exciting,” whose performances in Rotterdam prompted the Dutch press to dub him “Ryodinho.”

“'He's a young player with tremendous promise and potential and hopefully at Bolton we can give him a platform on which he can display his qualities.”

Overnight, Wanderers had been forced to abandon their attempt to sign Argentina international Juan Manuel Iturbe from FC Porto after the Portuguese club decided not to send him out on loan.

An offer worth £3m had been made for Palace’s skilful winger Zaha, rejected publicly by chairman Steve Parish. There was a short period of negotiation, in which Wanderers are understood to have improved the amount of cash the Eagles received up front, but when the player rejected the move at about 11am, Wanderers quickly moved to a more familiar target.

Australia international Rhys Williams has been on Coyle’s radar for 12 months, but with Boro chasing promotion, they were reluctant to lose their defensive lynchpin.

A bid of £3m was rejected out of hand – but when the club returned to negotiate, chairman Steve Gibson is understood to have told the Whites that the 23-year-old was not for sale at any price.

For all the talk of players heading to the Reebok, the week had been dominated by talk of Kevin Davies leaving for pastures new.

Sunderland had emerged as the leading contender for the Wanderers skipper but had a bid of £250,000 rejected completely out of hand on Monday. The Black Cats upped the ante yesterday morning but walked away from the deal after reports in the North East suggested the 34-year-old was about to sign a new 18-month deal.

Coyle repeated his desire to keep hold of the talismanic front man, but The Bolton News understands the club is maintaining their stance of not handing out new deals to out-of-contract players until they are clear of the relegation zone.