Avoiding disappointing Euro 2024 repeat will be sign of Bolton Wanderers, Ian Evatt progress: View | OneFootball

Bolton went through a phase of regularly having players at major tournaments and they will want to get back on the international stage.

Highlights

There are no current Bolton Wanderers players at this summer’s UEFA European Championships in Germany and, whilst perhaps a good thing for Ian Evatt and his pre-season preparations, there will be a desire to see Wanderers players of the future back at major tournaments such as the Euros.

Gethin Jones represented Australia at the AFC Asian Cup earlier this year, whilst Carlos Mendes Gomes played for Guinea-Bissau at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.

The closest a player came to being off to Germany this summer for UEFA Euro 2024 was midfielder and 2023/24 Bolton Wanderers’ Player of the Year, Josh Sheehan, who was a part of the Wales squad that lost their play-off final to Poland on penalties in Cardiff in March. Sheehan has since captained the Welsh in their recent goalless draw with Gibraltar.

Many may deem it irrelevant or even a distraction for Wanderers players to be playing for their countries, but there is a sense of status that comes with it and that can be reflected in the past or in the very best teams.

International recognition is good for Bolton, not just the players

There are a lot of reasons as to why having players at a major tournament is good for the club or the team and not just a special moment for the player, but one of those reasons is shared by the positives for the player.

For example, if a player is selected to go to a major tournament, then the experience gained and learned will only help that player in their personal and professional development. That raising of standards will therefore, or at least should therefore, aid his club when he returns to the club side.

Both Gethin Jones and Carlos Mendes Gomes have been in environments where the pressure to succeed is a lot higher than your bog-standard midweek League One outing and that experience is surely a positive for when they return to club training.

From a commercial perspective, allowing the club to ‘get its name out’, so to speak, with players represented on arguably the biggest stage in football at any international tournament, will also be vital off the pitch.

That can also then benefit the club on the pitch, with players potentially tempted to move to Bolton Wanderers, for example, if they can see a way of breaking into their national side or at least having a better chance at a higher profile club – with that argument potentially being able to be made for Aaron Collins at some stage in the future and his aspirations of playing for Wales.

There may well be a better chance of doing so as a Bolton player than a Bristol Rovers player, as may have been the case when the aforementioned Sheehan joined on a free transfer from Newport County.

The current Bolton squad and replicating the past

In terms of players representing their nation at a major tournament, Josh Sheehan remains the closest European but Gethin Jones, and even Jack Iredale, will have hopes of playing for the Socceroos at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Elsewhere in the squad, Collins will, as mentioned, hope to join Sheehan at a Wales camp in the near future, whilst new signing Chris Forino was recently called up to the Saint Lucian national team back in the November international break.

In 2004, Stelios Giannakopoulos won UEFA Euro 2004 with Greece as a Bolton Wanderers player and that majorly boosted the Whites’ reputation in Greece and across the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Wanderers have had three Englishmen - Eddie Hopkinson, Tommy Banks and Nat Lofthouse - feature at FIFA World Cups and then, between 1994 and 2014, they had at least one player at every single FIFA World Cup.

There are similarities to be drawn between Evatt’s era so far and that which occurred through the mid-90’s, such as the play-off heartache, Wembley trips, promotion and cup runs, but the next step, as has been the case in the last six months with the aforementioned Jones and Mendes Gomes, will be getting Bolton back to being a recognisable provider of talent on the world stage at international tournaments like Euro 2024, whether that's through their own players' progression or external recruitment.

That will be another step in the right direction and a sign of progress.