Former Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Liverpool goalkeeper 'wanted' for EFL coaching role

The 41-year-old is yet to hang up his gloves, although has held understudy roles for the bulk of the last decade.

He currently combines his goalkeeping duties for League One outfit Wigan Athletic with a coaching role, but is thought to be a target for their rivals Bolton Wanderers.

According to reporter Alan Nixon via his Patreon page, the Trotters want to prise Lonergan away from the Latics and hand him a full-time goalkeeper coaching gig.

If he did cross the rivalry divide, he would form part of the team assembled by Bolton boss Steven Schumacher following his appointment in January.

Lonergan is no stranger to Bolton having represented the club between 2012 and 2015. He made 62 appearances between the sticks for the Trotters, with only Preston North End having fielded the stopper on more occasions.

A familiar face in Yorkshire, Lonergan first arrived in the county to join Leeds in 2011. He was recruited as a replacement for Kasper Schmeichel, who had been sold to Leicester City.

He left after just one season as the club’s number one, but returned in 2017 to provide competition for Felix Wiedwald.

Lonergan eventually leapfrogged Wiedwald, but still left at the end of the season. A season at Middlesbrough followed, as did spells with the likes of Liverpool, Everton and Stoke City.

Speaking in October about his second Leeds exit, Lonergan said: “First day I got in [following Marcelo Bielsa’s appointment in 2018], [I] sat down with my breakfast, got some butter for my toast, went to have my coffee, someone took my plate off me. [I said] ‘what are you doing?’. [They said] ‘you can’t have butter, you’re too fat’.

“I never spoke a word to the manager or nothing. Never met him, but one of his people took it off us. About three days later, I got paid up. It worked out well.”

MORE: Leeds United man's future up in air as update on seven-goal attacker emerges