One factor let Bolton and Steven Schumacher take deadline-day risk involving Ryan Hardie | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers gave themselves the opportunity to take a risk on Johnny Kenny after previously impressive winter window business.

Bolton Wanderers have almost inexplicably put themselves in a position whereby they are very much in the battle to finish in the top two and gain automatic promotion from League One this season.

They have enjoyed what appears to be quite an impressive January transfer window that finished off with the addition of Johnny Kenny on loan from Celtic, opting to sign the Irishman ahead of signing Ryan Hardie from Wrexham.

The reasons for that apparent last-minute change of heart with Bolton’s recruitment process will be varied and, as Steven Schumacher has explained, Kenny has been a long-term target for Bolton, and they had a £500,000 bid rejected for the Shamrock Rovers attacker in the summer.

However, the fact that their business had been so impressive, especially in terms of the profile of players brought in, would suggest that Bolton had given themselves the opportunity to take a punt.

Kenny was the subject of interest from German giants Schalke, as well as Danish league leaders AGF, and so suggestions that he is a punt may seem harsh, but Hardie, for example, would have provided Bolton fans, and even Schumacher, a bit more certainty about what they were going to get – but that is no bad thing.

Bolton can afford to take a risk on Johnny Kenny

As was the case at the end of the summer transfer window with the signings of Cyrus Christie and Marcus Forss, Bolton appear to have a more balanced approach when it comes to recruitment.

Rather than in the past, with former Director of Football Chris Markham and manager Ian Evatt, whereby incoming transfers were often punts based on players having high ceilings but unknown floors; there is more of a balance with Schumacher and his recruitment team of Fergal Harkin, the Sporting Director, and Jimmy Dickinson, Head of Recruitment.

Punts are still taken with a view to developing players, such as David Harrington and Lewis Temple in January or Teddy Sharman-Lowe and Thierry Gale in the summer.

However, there is also much more of a balance and a focus on ensuring players come in to immediately raise the level of the first-team or even the squad, rather than being hopes.

Christie and Forss did that, albeit the latter has struggled for form and with injury, and then this January transfer window again performed a similar role.

For example, Corey Blackett-Taylor is now an immensely experienced attacker in the EFL and has promotion-winning experience from this division, while Jack Bonham is of an entirely different profile, age-wise and experience, and even style of goalkeeping, to Sharman-Lowe.

Rob Apter is a player who thrived in the division for Blackpool and Ruben Rodrigues is also another player who has won promotion as a key player from League One.

That level of experience and quality almost guarantees Bolton to stay at a good enough level that a punt on the striking position could be taken, and that may well have contributed to Kenny joining ahead of Hardie.

Johnny Kenny should not feel too much pressure at Bolton

The signings of Rodrigues, Apter and Blackett-Taylor have massively strengthened the depth and quality of Bolton in the final third, and the striking position also now appears well stocked with the arrival of Kenny.

Being someone that is seeking to prove himself good enough to play for Celtic after a difficult few months at Parkhead, Kenny may naturally feel a bit of pressure to immediately perform at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, but that should not necessarily be the case.

After a brilliant start to the season, Mason Burstow’s form has massively tailed off but the Hull City loanee has been able to showcase his capabilities and should come again at some stage this season in terms of finding his best.

In his stead, Sam Dalby, who Bolton won the race for in the summer and gave a four-year deal as well as the number ten shirt to, has also now finally been able to show exactly why he was so coveted.

The likelihood is that Kenny will have to be playing second fiddle to Dalby for the time being with the form of the former Wrexham man as such, both in terms of finally beginning to find the net as well as his all-round game.

The business that Bolton did in the window has eased the tension of supporters with regards to Bolton’s options in the final third and that should therefore ease the pressure on Kenny from the start.

That business also allowed Bolton to bring in a player whereby the ceiling could be very high, as opposed to a player in Hardie who, injured, may have limited time to find his form and fluency in the second-half of the campaign and a player who, at his very best when under Schumacher, did still only manage a rate of a goal every third game or so for a title-winning Plymouth side.

Bolton would have known what they were going to get with Hardie, albeit with his injury, and it would have been fine, if not very good for League One. Kenny, though, is a player that has been wanted for a while by the club and could be anything right now – and the business done previously may well have given them the confidence to take a potentially brilliant risk.