Bristol Rovers on verge of reuniting with Wimbledon star Luke McCormick after long pursuit

Bristol Rovers are close to re-signing midfielder Luke McCormick after moving a step closer to meeting AFC Wimbledon’s transfer demands.

Reports from both London and in South London claim that McCormick could be on his way back to the Memorial Stadium which would make him the seventh arrival of the summer.

The South London Press says that McCormick is ‘set’ for the switch to Bristol Rovers after stepping up in their negotiations.

Despite not playing in a fixture for them this season, Wimbledon will look to find a replacement to soften the blow of one of their players leaving.

In addition, the Bristol Post report that Rovers have made a breakthrough in the negotiations with the London club, which has put them at the forefront of the race to sign the former Chelsea youngster.

The Post hadds that they are now ‘favourites’ to sign the player, moving ahead of Hibernian, managed by former Bristol City boss Lee Johnson in the race for his signature.

First-team manager Joey Barton had wanted up to five new faces before Saturday’s League One match with Shrewsbury Town and should the deal reach its conclusion, the player could make his second debut.

After signing Lewis Gibson, a centre-back, which was a position that needed strengthening in, the attention turned to bringing in attacking reinforcements.

After his post-match conference at Portsmouth on Saturday, Barton had said they were ‘short’ in the wide areas with just Aaron Collins, Harvey Saunders and Harry Anderson as options.

He said: “We’re short. We’ve lost three wingers in Elliot Anderson, Luke Thomas and Sam Nicholson and we haven’t really replaced any of them.

“We’re short in that department and we’re fully aware of that and the owner is fully aware of that and we’re aware of that as a group.

“Again, when you want quality, you’ve got to wait, you’ve got to be patient. Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, the wait will be worth it.”

Rovers had considered looking at other transfer targets with Burnley’s Adam Phillips suggested, but McCormick remained the priority and they have now been seemingly rewarded for their patience.

McCormick still had a year remaining on his contract after joining them last summer with nine assists and eight goals during his time at Plough Lane.

An asking price of £200,00 had been set originally by Wimbledon but they wanted to remain strong in negotiations as a part of the fee will go to Chelsea, who had a sell-on clause on the player.

He hadn’t been included in any of Johnny Jackson’s match-day squads with the player reportedly keen to move on.