Bolton Wanderers will surely have new Dion Charles, Huddersfield Town transfer regret | OneFootball

Dion Charles' departure from Bolton Wanderers has hurt both him and Bolton, whilst also not yet aiding Huddersfield Town.

It would perhaps seem a bit daft and also a bit reactionary for Bolton Wanderers supporters to now be lamenting the sale of a striker still yet to score for his new club, but there will be a reasonable growing angst within the fanbase at their winter transfer window actions.

The Trotters sanctioned the sale of then-league top scorer Dion Charles - a man who, whilst a Wanderer, became the first Bolton player to score 50 goals for the club since Kevin Nolan, the first to 20 in a season since Michael Ricketts and the first to do that in successive seasons since John McGinlay - to Huddersfield Town for a believed to be around £750,000.

A few days later, then-manager Ian Evatt departed the club and questions were asked as to whether it was rational or organised for a club to operate in that manner – those questions raised again when Director of Football Chris Markham departed the club just over a month later, too.

Heading into the winter transfer window, there was a belief Wanderers needed to act in terms of attack anyway. They could only bring in Cardiff City striker Kion Etete on loan until the end of the season without further bolstering of the striking department.

No winners between Charles, Huddersfield, Bolton

Since his arrival, with his home debut actually coming against his former club in a 1-0 win for Bolton in the first game of the post-Ian Evatt era, Charles has failed to score for the Terriers as they drift from automatic promotion contention and are now a few points outside the top six.

Huddersfield endured a significant outlay on both Charles and fellow striker Joe Taylor, who arrived from Luton Town, yet they have continued to regress throughout this season, having been leapfrogged by a Bolton side that were floundering in mid-table at the time.

However, even with Schumacher and his Bolton side able to produce the occasional brilliant performances and generally reasonable results, there is something missing in the final third, and it could well be what costs them promotion this season.

For example, they have now scored either one or zero goals in each of their last five League One games since a 3-2 loss away to relegation-battling Bristol Rovers last month.

In their 1-0 defeat at home to a resurgent and in-form Rotherham United side on Tuesday, Wanderers managed 36 shots with just seven on target to Rotherham’s five shots and one shot on target. They dominated the ball with 71% possession and had 12 corners, too. However, with the lack of an out-and-out poacher, they had ‘one of those games’ instead.

Bolton’s bizarre squad construction

The departed Markham, who will be replaced by Standard Liege’s Sporting Director Fergal Harkin at the end of this season, pulled off some excellent signings and managed to pick out some gems for the Whites.

However, identifying talent as an analyst and being able to construct a squad capable of sustainable results and performances with a tactical and technical variety are very different things.

As mentioned, albeit with a slight tactical tweak being the prompt, Bolton went into the winter window looking for a striker because, as out-and-out strikers, they had just Charles and Victor Adeboyejo, injury prone and now once again, out until next season, in the squad following the release of Cameron Jerome and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson as well as loaning out of Dan Nlundulu.

Instead, seemingly their first priority in the winter window as to bring in long-term target Joel Randall from Peterborough United to join the long list of maverick number tens who ‘can’ play up-front, such as Aaron Collins, Klaidi Lolos, Carlos Mendes Gomes and John McAtee, as well as Scott Arfield before he left for Falkirk before the end of the window.

He may not have hit the ground running at Huddersfield, and he had his detractors at Bolton, but, as they struggle for efficiency in the final third and begin to feel the pain of mismanagement in certain areas of the squad in a desperate push for a top six spot and the play-off places in League One, there is a completely fair argument to suggest they would be in a much stronger position had they retained the Northern Ireland international striker.