Season Preview: The sky is the limit for Evatt’s newly-promoted Wanderers

After a dire few years for Bolton Wanderers which included near non-existence, the club now appears to be back on the up and having achieved promotion last season, the sky is the limit back in League One.

2020/21 was quite simply a campaign of two halves for Bolton manager Ian Evatt, who took charge last summer ahead of the club’s first season in English football’s fourth division for the first time in over 30 years.

High expectations were placed upon the team and Evatt too, a slow start to the season wasn’t really resolved until key signings were made in January that were able to bed into the squad and strengthen all over the pitch.

As late in the campaign as February, the Wanderers sat 19^th, but a remarkable run from then onwards saw them climb the table and secure third-place – the final automatic spot – in League Two on the final day of the season.

There’s a feel-good factor around everything that the club do now, and over 10,000 season tickets have been sold by Bolton ahead of the new campaign giving an indication of the fans’ belief in the team.

Transfers

Compared to when Evatt took charge last summer, this pre-season has been a walk in the park in terms of signings because the core group of players were retained following promotion, but nine additions have been made over the course of this summer.

Last season’s loanees Oladapo Afolayan (West Ham United) and Declan John (Swansea) have become permanent signings after impressing consistently since originally joining the club back in January, when Evatt set about putting his own mark on the squad.

Notably, the players brought in are spread across the pitch when looking at their preferred positions so competition within the squad is clearly something that the Wanderers aim for. The latest signing – Elias Kachunga – has been made less than 24 hours before the start of the season but could still feature on the opening day against MK Dons.

Sadly, promising winger and England youth international Xavier Amaechi – signed on loan from Hamburg – will already miss some of the action though after suffering a fractured metatarsal in pre-season action against Preston North End. With that loan deal expiring in December, he may well struggle to get a game in for the Wanderers at all before its’ conclusion.

As for outgoings, there really haven’t been any of great significance other than for the romanticism of the game. Both Arthur Gnahoua and Shaun Miller scored some hugely important goals during that all-important winning run last season and have departed, but were unlikely to challenge for a starting spot if they had stayed.

Young goalkeeper Luke Hutchinson has impressed during the stints he has played this pre-season and has secured himself a loan move to local non-league outfit Atherton Collieries. Highly rated by Evatt and his staff, 18-year-old Hutchinson is one to watch for the future.

Manager

Despite an early judgement of Evatt when things weren’t going right at the start of last season by some fans, most of a Wanderers persuasion now love the manager of their football club.

His passion for the game is clear to see and his ethos matches that of the football club in terms of where the pair want to go to. The former Blackpool defender isn’t afraid to ‘dream’ big and has already mentioned his desire to manage Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League.

Though that’s a long way off yet and actions of course speak louder than words, it’s refreshing to hear positive targets when dealing with a club who have suffered so heavily over the last few years.

Targets

The target should be promotion for Bolton this season. With the squad that Evatt has built, and the confidence breeding day-by-day both internally and externally, there’s no reason as to why that shouldn’t be an aim.

Of course, there are 23 other teams in League One all hoping for the same and quite a few of those could plausibly be in with a shout of it. So, a more realistic aim for the Whites this season is likely to finish in the top half, perhaps pushing the play-off spots towards the end of the campaign.

Their last three campaigns have now resulted in either promotion or relegation so one without either of those probably won’t do any harm.

Key Player

There are genuinely so many options that could be used here due to the array of talent now within the Whites’ squad, so it probably comes down to personal preference.

Playing devils’ advocate, Bolton don’t score a lot of goals or at least didn’t do last season. A large chunk of their victories were by one-goal margins and if that is to continue, then the most important thing is to maintain a solid defence.

Ricardo Santos received many plaudits last year for his performances and rightly so, playing a big part in securing clean sheets and stopping opponents’ attacks in their tracks. In League One, the big Portuguese centre back is going to have to raise his game up a level, coming up against better strikers, but he certainly can do so.

To become a real key player though he needs to start scoring goals from set pieces. For all his size, Santos is yet to notch for the Wanderers and rarely looked like doing in League Two.

Youth Prospect

This one isn’t too difficult given the impact of 20-year-old George Thomason in Bolton’s midfield last year. Out on loan in the Northern Premier League – seventh tier – with Bamber Bridge early on, Thomason was recalled and cemented a place in the starting line-up under Evatt.

Keeping players much older than you out of the team isn’t something achieved by a fluke, and the Lancastrian showed his worth with some mightily impressive performances in what was undoubtedly a heavily physical league.

Not turning 21 until January, Thomason already has the grit and determination about him required to go far. If that grit doesn’t boil over into aggression, and he can add some more goals to his game, then he could go from strength to strength again in this campaign.

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