Bolton Wanderers and Ian Evatt are repeating a costly transfer mistake: View | OneFootball

For a second successive summer, Bolton Wanderers are not getting their business done early with no attackers brought in and nothing reportedly close.

Highlights

Last summer, Bolton Wanderers ended up missing out on quite a few key summer targets and the sagas that were caused as a result brought about a hangover that lasted months into the start of the 2023/24 campaign.

Wanderers reportedly agreed a deal with Saint Mirren to sign Australian international midfielder Keanu Baccus, as well as with Bristol City for right-back Kane Wilson, but neither came to fruition with Baccus talking about a failure to agree personal terms and Wilson’s move, who eventually gained automatic promotion with Derby County and scored a crucial winning goal in the March encounter between Bolton and Derby, falling through due to issues and concerns with his medical.

That meant Bolton were delayed in bringing in the likes of Carlos Mendes Gomes from Luton Town and Paris Maghoma from Brentford, with wing-back options not signed until the January transfer window, either.

Well, with the season about two and a half weeks away, after losing the play-off final to Oxford United in mid-May, the club appear to be repeating the same mistakes.

Bolton's inability to get deals done early

As mentioned, both Maghoma and Mendes Gomes joined late on in the window and that meant that neither of them featured in what was supposedly a complex pre-season put on by Evatt – a reason as to why Wanderers have tended to be so busy during the summer transfer window.

The Whites are now three games into a six-game pre-season calendar with two coming up within the next seven days, so unless Bolton get a real shift on, and with Evatt’s latest comments about the loan market likely not heating up until when the Premier League starts, that could prove to be a concern.

Whilst a legitimate excuse Evatt made in regard to loan deals, it doesn’t prevent Bolton simply getting purchases over the line and their extremely cautious approach in the transfer market, as reflected with moves for Baccus and Wilson falling through last summer, would appear to yet again be a sticking point.

Danny Armstrong has been a strong link throughout the window, but Evatt has already discussed that one of his targets is not being allowed to leave until after their upcoming European tie – which could well indeed be Kilmarnock, where Armstrong plays his football.

Again, there are mitigating factors against that, but Evatt has discussed his desire to be more tactically flexible in-game next season, but Bolton’s only additions thus far have been a goalkeeper who is expected to be second choice and is currently injured, a centre-back who is not expected to be a starter from the beginning of the season and is currently injured and 35-year-old midfield utility man Scott Arfield.

One addition that does allow for a bit of hope and promise of something tactically changing is the arrival of Klaidi Lolos and the Greek attacking midfielder, who is expected to hit the ground running, having been one of the fit members of what is a decimated squad in pre-season; which is something Evatt has also complained about due to new tactical instructions being missed by many.

Bodies are now becoming a necessity, let alone of the requisite quality, and with business, once again, now not looking set to be done early, it could lead to another Mendes Gomes situation where he cannot get into a cautious eleven because of a lack of pre-season minutes before then having an injury-hit campaign or even Maghoma, who ended up as Bolton’s Young Player of the Year but wasn’t properly bedded into the side until mid-to-late-October.

Evatt needs to get the Bolton fans back on side

One of the more underrated components of getting the business done early, and this may well have an impact on the players that are on the pitch, would be to get supporters back on side.

Quite a surprisingly large proportion of Bolton’s fanbase were left extremely irritated to the point of exhaustion with Evatt’s methods in the aftermath of Wembley, but time, the great healer that it is, has allowed things to die down a bit.

However, the levels of impatience within the town were shown on social media as a lack of signings and a completely and utterly meaningless 3-0 defeat to Middlesbrough in a pre-season friendly led to the first mini-social media meltdown of what could end up being a long season.

If reinforcements do not arrive before the season or even arrive too late to feature from the start in the opening weeks of the campaign, then the tide which is turning will eventually come down on Evatt in what could be quite a toxic manner next month at home when they face newly-promoted Wrexham, coached by former Bolton boss Phil Parkinson in their opening home game of the season.

Whether the stalling over incomings is by design, by accident and nothing to do with Bolton themselves or a potentially costly mistake can be debated, but for it to happen in successive seasons would suggest it is the latter.

As a result, the likelihood is that on-pitch personnel and performances are unlikely to drastically improve from finishing with just 11 victories in 29 matches across all competitions since New Year’s Day and the off-the-pitch meltdown and criticism from supporters is beginning to boil up once again.