Steve Bruce is frustrated after failing to land Hendry Thomas just because he doesn't have a work permit.
Boss on the look-out for more midfielders
Wigan manager Steve Bruce is frustrated after failing to land Hendry Thomas just because he does not have a work permit.
The club lost an appeal on Friday to sign the 23-year-old Honduran midfielder because he has not met the criteria having not played enough games for his country.
The decision leaves Bruce back to square one in the search for a central midfielder - with only Michael Brown and Thomas' international team-mate Wilson Palacios at his disposal.
"We are disappointed because we did our homework over the summer for Hendry Thomas," he said.
"We have worked so hard on that over the last three or four months, agreed a fee, been out to Miami, been out to Honduras and parts of South America to try to tie the boy up and unfortunately he hasn't met the work permit criteria.
"We have been kicked in the teeth. It saddens me for all the work the club has done. You get all that done and because of a little red tape, we have lost out."
Bruce felt they had a good case to appeal for the Olimpia player's signature as Thomas is the Honduras Olympic captain and had been playing mostly for that team to prepare for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, which meant he did not feature for the national side.
