Football Season Guide

There is certainly no lack of ambition at the University of Bolton Stadium and manager Ian Evatt is a man in a hurry. A season of consolidation in League One was just what the club needed after recent turmoil but Evatt wasn’t satisfied and strengthened his squad significantly in January. He has looked to do so again this summer but has missed a number of transfer targets. The most significant of those was wing-back Marlon Fossey, who shone whilst on loan from Fulham last season before it was ended early by injury. Evatt was desperate to bring him back to Bolton and is likely to persevere until the window closes in September. He has retained the spine of the side that won promotion from League Two in 2021 in centre-back Ricardo Almeida Santos, holding midfielder Michael Williams and creative winger Amadou Bakayoko but has pretty much replaced the rest. James Trafford will be the No.1 again after returning for another season on loan from Manchester City whilst Aaron Morley provided real quality in the middle of the park following his move from Rochdale. Dion Charles will be hoping to hit 20 goals having shown his goalscoring instincts after signing from Accrington Stanley. Josh Sheehan will be like a new signing having missed most of the last campaign with an ACL injury. Evatt is likely to be busy in the transfer market in August with one or two shrewd additions likely to make all the difference. The Trotters don’t consider themselves a League One club and their supporters will be expecting to challenge for the top six this time around.