John McAtee decision looms after Bolton Wanderers' cut-throat 48 hours | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers' early summer business suggests that John McAtee may finally be facing the axe at the club this summer.

Just a few days since booking their spot back in the Championship, Bolton Wanderers have acted swiftly to show ruthlessness with their squad – and that may be bad news for one fan favourite in particular.

Having overhauled the squad last season with the help of new Sporting Director Fergal Harkin and new Head of Recruitment Jimmy Dickinson, Bolton boss Steven Schumacher managed to finally lead the Trotters out of League One.

With plenty of first-teamers let go or sold on, and 14 new signings made, before another seven arrived in the winter window, the club showed extraordinary backing to Schumacher in the 2025/26 season.

The former Plymouth Argyle and Stoke City boss, under enormous pressure, was able to repay the faith shown in him by eventually leading Wanderers to promotion via the play-offs.

A 4-1 defeat of Stockport County at Wembley Stadium was followed by a civic reception at Bolton Town Hall just 24 hours later – but the partying hasn’t delayed Bolton’s immediate action.

Just a day after that celebration in the town centre, Bolton announced that key men from the play-offs, such as George Johnston, Kyle Dempsey and Jordi Osei-Tutu, would not be retained, alongside Carlos Mendes Gomes.

That was then followed by a thankful farewell to their seven loanees with no suggestion of talks beginning on any returns, as well as confirmation of the sale of Szabolcs Schon to Gyori, where he had spent the season out on loan.

With further links to David Watson and Luca Stephenson since, it is clear Bolton are set to be very busy this summer and their ruthless streak may be bad news for John McAtee.

John McAtee seems like a likely casualty of another Bolton rebuild

Having signed for an undisclosed fee from Luton Town in the summer of 2024, Walkden-born John McAtee, who had thrived in recent play-offs against Bolton while on loan at Barnsley (images above and below), was signed to be a spearhead of Ian Evatt’s promotion challenging Trotters.

In a season that saw Bolton majorly underperform pre-season expectations, leading to the departure of Evatt mid-way through the campaign, with McAtee showing flashes but failing to ever find rhythm and consistent form, bar an impressive spell as an out-and-out striker following the appointment of Schumacher.

In the major turnover of players last summer, players of a similar profile to that of McAtee, such as Mendes Gomes and Schon as well as Aaron Collins and Klaidi Lolos, were let go of by the club – but McAtee remained, despite reports of Barnsley trying to re-sign him before the close of the window.

The maverick attacking midfielder with no clear defined best position, despite him suggesting he wanted to be a ‘number ten’, spent much of the season on the periphery of things, falling down the pecking order when Bolton brought in a raft of new signings in January, most notably Ruben Rodrigues.

McAtee was able to improve towards the back end of the campaign and did play an important role in Bolton eventually getting promoted – but the links to Watson and proven will to shake things up once more may well finally put to bed his Bolton career.

John McAtee was finally able to make an impact at Bolton

At the back end of this season, Schumacher, who had relied on Rodrigues for much of the final part of the campaign, did begin to give McAtee some more minutes and trust him to get Wanderers over the line.

Having previously been suspect in possession when protecting a lead, with a misplaced pass against Reading in August leading to a late Royals equaliser and the subsequent banishment from the squad of the former Grimsby Town man and then those links to Barnsley, Schumacher surprisingly gave McAtee a key role as something of a ‘finisher’ at the end of key matches.

Most notably, his pass to free Thierry Gale down the left against Bradford City to assist Xavier Simons’ semi-final clinching goal at Valley Parade and then his excellent header to keep the ball alive for Sam Dalby’s acrobatic finish at Wembley Stadium.

Those moments, and his subsequent celebrations with Bolton supporters, have reinstated the always industrious and hard-working attacker as a fans’ favourite in Lancashire.

However, those moments could, and perhaps should, be a fitting and fond way to begin his farewell from the Toughsheet Community Stadium if Wanderers are to be ambitious this summer.

If Schumacher is to stick with the 4-2-3-1 system that got Bolton up, then he will remain behind Rodrigues in the pecking order and the signing of Watson will likely push him further away from getting regular minutes.

To go with that, the decision to show no sentiment with regards to the likes of Johnston and Osei-Tutu in particular would suggest Bolton have plans lined up that make decent players who can occasionally put in a good showing or provide some meaningful contributions obsolete for next season.

A higher calibre of player is clearly being sought and, unlike mistakes made when jumping from League Two to League One back in 2021, sentimentality and a ‘they could do a job’ mentality is seemingly playing no part in their recruitment strategy.

If McAtee is to leave Bolton this summer, then he will go with best wishes from the supporters and that may not have been the case a few months ago, having failed to show what he was capable of for much of his time at the club.

However, if McAtee does indeed move on, then it would have to come as no surprise, given the general overall output of his two seasons at the club and the seemingly aggressive way Bolton have set about their business already.