How Bolton Wanderers helped Pep Guardiola to £19m Man City cash windfall | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers played a major role in Manchester City earning £19 million from Burnley for goalkeeper James Trafford.

Bolton Wanderers were responsible for helping Manchester City net a major £19 million transfer fee for James Trafford for Burnley, with the goalkeeper having excelled for the Whites.

Throughout the last few years, Bolton have been able to pluck some rather special loanees out and those players have gone on to do a lot in their still young careers.

For the 2022/23 campaign, Conor Bradley spent the season in south Lancashire and was superb before forming a part of the first-team at Liverpool and now being a Premier League winner.

In the 2020/21 season, Dapo Afolayan joined the club for a six-month stint, initially from West Ham United before moving permanently and eventually going on to help St Pauli gain promotion to the Bundesliga, where he remains.

Paris Maghoma won Bolton’s Young Player of the Year in the 2023/24 season before injuries stunted his progress at Brentford, but he will be expected to become a Premier League player once again, while this year’s current star, Amario Cozier-Duberry, is destined for big things, too.

However, despite those names and success stories, perhaps the most impressive loanee was James Trafford, who spent a year and a half with Bolton before being the subject of a £19 million move in the summer of 2023.

Bolton helped to launch the career of James Trafford

Cockermouth-born James Trafford joined the Manchester City academy at the age of 13 from Carlisle United, before becoming a professional in 2021.

His first six months as a pro were shaky, though, with an 11-game stint with Accrington Stanley in League One eventually seeing him dropped by the third-tier strugglers as winter approached.

It was therefore a fairly big surprise to see Bolton, a team with aspirations of launching a promotion challenge within the next 18 months, plump for him to replace the struggling Joel Dixon between the sticks in January 2022.

However, the Englishman was utterly magnificent for the Whites.

Bolton enjoyed a brilliant run to the end of the season, becoming one of the very best teams in the division in the second half of the campaign and a lot of that was down to the base of Trafford.

His brilliant ball-playing abilities suited the style of football implemented by Ian Evatt, and he managed to truly persuade supporters he was of immense quality with match-winning saves.

He kept seven clean sheets in his first 15 League One appearances and conceded just 20 goals in 22 matches as Bolton propelled themselves into the top-half of the table and Trafford’s career in the EFL had been launched.

His personality also won supporters over with Trafford often winding opposition supporters up. His confidence was high but the best of Trafford at Bolton was still yet to come.

James Trafford earned a big money move to Burnley

In the 2022/23 campaign, Trafford was the goalkeeper for a Bolton side that conceded just 36 goals in 46 games, which was the second-best defensive record in the division behind an Ipswich Town side that gained promotion to the Premier League the following season.

He has helped in defence, with Bradley at right wing-back and captain Ricardo Santos peaking during that campaign in the heart of the back-line, but it still fell to Trafford to come up with massive moments.

22 clean sheets in 45 League One appearances and a continuation of his simply brilliant ball-playing attributes that saw him add another assist during the campaign, Trafford had emerged as one of the brightest goalkeepers in the EFL.

With Wanderers, Trafford helped the club win the EFL Trophy with a 4-0 defeat of Plymouth Argyle at Wembley Stadium, and he was instrumental in helping them reach the play-offs, before succumbing to a 2-1 aggregate loss to Barnsley.

The summer of 2023 saw Burnley make a £19 million move for the young ‘keeper and, after a slow start with the Clarets, mirroring his slow start with Accrington, he again turned things around to put up frankly extraordinary stats and achievements for a goalkeeper of his age.