Steven Schumacher offered Bolton Wanderers transfer caution involving Hull City - 'it's easy to get carried away' | OneFootball

Mason Burstow has enjoyed a strong start to his current loan deal with Bolton

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

It has been a very inconsistent start to the season for Bolton Wanderers on a collective level, although the same can't quite be said for certain individuals.

The Whites endured an extremely frustrating 2024/25 campaign under both Ian Evatt and his successor, Steven Schumacher, with the latter hoping to make his side a competitive force once again in what is now his first full season in charge at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

Bolton had fallen from play-off regulars across two previous seasons in League One to finishing 10 points adrift from the top six last time out, and with a one-time title winner from his Plymouth Argyle tenure now at the helm, a major squad overhaul was conducted in the summer in order to achieve Schumacher's aforementioned aims.

The club, who had previously lost the likes of Dion Charles to divisional rivals Huddersfield Town, also bid farewell to long-serving players such as former captain Ricardo Santos, Gethin Jones, Nathan Baxter and fellow forward, Aaron Collins across the summer transfer window, with new blood since added to what has been a dynamic attack in the opening weeks of the season.

And whilst the Greater Manchester side still reside outside the play-off positions following an underwhelming 2-0 defeat to Northampton Town at Sixfields on Saturday afternoon, supporters remain excited about how the remainder of Mason Burstow's loan spell from Championship side, Hull City, could pan out.

With that in mind, FLW asked our Bolton fan pundit, Liam O'Meara, whether the Trotters should already be planning a permanent January swoop.

Bolton Wanderers urged to take cautious Mason Burstow, Hull City transfer approach despite strong recent form

Burstow's career path to-date has certainly been eye-catching, with Chelsea clearly seeing strong potential in the striker back in January 2022, signing him from then third-tier side, Charlton Athletic.

The 22-year-old has since endured two frustrating spells in the second tier on loan with Sunderland and following a £2m switch to Hull last summer.

After scoring twice in just 31 Championship appearances for the Tigers and seeing a January loan exit to Plymouth Argyle fall through, he is now enjoying the best goalscoring form of his senior career thus far alongside fellow creators-in-chief such as Marcus Forss and Amario Cozier-Duberry.

Yet despite scoring five goals in 10 appearances for Bolton, O'Meara believes the club ought to err on the side of caution when it comes to plotting a permanent agreement with the Yorkshire side.

"Mason Burstow's had a very good start. But, personally, I wouldn't be doing anything in terms of permanent transfers," he told FLW.

"I think it's easy to get carried away and think 'someone's started well and that's going to be the same player you have throughout that period'.

"But, it's early days and we don't know what division we're going to be in next season, whether that be League One or we have a very good season and get promoted to the Championship," O'Meara added.

"There's a lot of players out there. I think the main thing for Mason Burstow and Bolton is to carry on the way things are for now. Take a view on it in January, and potentially, the end of the season.

He concluded: "We're still in September, so the idea of having to panic and sign players because they've started well is a really poor way of working (in my opinion)."

Mason Burstow needs to solely focus on footballing development at Bolton Wanderers

Burstow has clearly flourished in an environment which has allowed him to settle and solely focus on football matters, and that should continue to be the main focus of himself and Schumacher in the coming weeks as we head towards the critical winter period.

After an unsettling and inconsistent period in terms of regular football and output, it is clear that his pace, power and intelligence has been beneficial to the progressive way in which the Liverpudlian sets his team up, and if that remains the case, then the goals are likely to continue flowing.

Some Hull supporters somewhat questioned the decision to sanction a loan agreement back in early August at a time when Sergej Jakirovic had very few attacking options at his disposal.

However, with Oli McBurnie, Kyle Joseph and Joe Gelhardt all impressing of late, as well as the further depth given by Enis Destan, it is clear that Burstow's struggles for involvement could have continued, with assistant Andy Dawson recently outlining that all three parties will benefit from the initial agreement, and most importantly, the striker in that regard.

With Hull parting with £2m for his services last August, what figure the club would deem acceptable if a permanent offer from the Whites was put on the table remains unknown.

Yet, with transfer talk already surfacing regarding Cozier-Duberry's future at the Toughsheet post-January amid strong interest from Sheffield United, Bolton can ill-afford many distractions to get in the way of their promotion bid.