Bolton Wanderers fell flat with Charlton Athletic transfer deal - it wasn’t money well-spent | OneFootball

Josh Magennis fell flat in his sole season at Bolton, which resulted in relegation before the club went into administration

Josh Magennis has an esteemed career in the EFL for several clubs, but his time at Bolton Wanderers is a year that both he and the Trotters would want to forget.

The Northern Irishman's first two years back in England after a period in Scotland saw him register back-to-back 10-goal seasons for Charlton Athletic, helping the Addicks to the play-offs in the 2017/18 campaign.

At 27, the physical frontman was ready to take on the Championship for the first time since he came through at Cardiff City in 2009, and Bolton were ready to take him on in the second tier, as they looked to build on a campaign which saw them narrowly avoid relegation.

However, the Trotters were undergoing some immense financial strain around that time, and ultimately, the reported £200,000 fee they paid for Magennis was not worth it at all.

Not only for his dud campaign on the field, which resulted in relegation, but also because the Bolton bank was running increasingly low, resulting in the club being placed into administration at the end of the 2018/19 season.

Josh Magennis' disappointing 2018/19 Bolton Wanderers campaign

Taking apart the off-field drama which surrounded Bolton across the 2018/19 campaign, Magennis simply didn't make much of an impact during his sole campaign at the then-named University of Bolton Stadium.

That was, despite his tenure getting off to the best of starts, scoring twice in his opening two games, and playing every minute of a four-game start which saw Bolton win three times and draw the other.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. The Trotters won just five more times throughout the rest of the campaign, and Magennis would score just twice more in league action in a Bolton shirt.

In the end, the Northern Irishman's hat-trick display in a FA Cup third-round win over Walsall proved to be his, and the club's, only real highlight of that campaign.

Magennis ended up playing a part in 42 of Bolton's 45 Championship games that year, which emphasises how poor a year he had in front of goal, and the situation that the club had found itself in financially, too.

Bolton Wanderers would be placed into administration days after the 2018/19 campaign ended

Four goals in 42 games make for poor viewing on Magennis' part, but the fact that Bolton only played 45 games that campaign outlines the dire state that the Trotters were in that year.

Wages were left unpaid in March and April, which caused the players to go on strike just 16 hours before a scheduled game against Brentford. The game was rearranged, but then called off, as Bolton were unable to confirm that adequate safety personnel could be arranged.

A game being cancelled was highly unprecedented, and later that month, the Trotters became the first EFL side in six years to enter administration.

That period in administration is still something that haunts Bolton fans to date, as the club were on the verge of liquidation before a last-minute sale to Football Ventures Limited in August 2019.

The money spent on Josh Magennis could have been better used elsewhere

Whilst traditionally not a high fee to spend on a striker, the £200,000 that Bolton put down on Magennis in 2018 could, and arguably should, have been used more wisely.

In the end, the Northern Irishman would move to Hull City after spending just one year at the financially troubled Trotters, and ended up suffering a second consecutive relegation to League One, before having the best goalscoring season of his career to help the Tigers instantly bounce back.

As Magennis went down again, so did Bolton, though, as they suffered consecutive relegations to League Two after starting their first campaign back in League One with a 12-point deduction.

In the end, the financial risk at the time of spending a fee on someone in the summer of 2018 needed to pay off in the form of goals, which could have contributed to their survival, as the club couldn't afford to face the losses that come with relegation to the third tier.