Bolton Wanderers are about to learn the full extent of Ricardo Santos’ legacy – here is why | OneFootball

Former Bolton Wanderers captain Ricardo Santos has left the club after five years and the Trotters are not yet aware of what legacy he leaves.

Bolton Wanderers have announced their retained list for the 2025/26 season with several notable names departing the club, such as vice-captain Gethin Jones and goalkeeper Nathan Baxter, as well as former club captain Ricardo Santos.

Santos, the former Peterborough United centre-back, joined Wanderers in League Two on a free transfer from National League side Barnet, and he has gone on to be a key figure of the club in the last few years.

He was instrumental in their promotion to League One and was also key in helping them reach the play-offs of the third-tier in both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns, captaining the side to the EFL Trophy title, too, in the 2022/23 season.

The 29-year-old Portuguese defender made 207 appearances in five seasons at the Toughsheet Community Stadium but will now depart on a free transfer this summer.

Many supporters were heavily critical of Santos throughout his Bolton career, but especially in the aftermath of his performance against Oxford United at Wembley Stadium in a 2-0 loss in last year’s play-off final.

However, players often become a lot better when they are no longer playing for the team and there is a real chance Trotters fans only realise what they had when it has gone.

Imperious Santos

After a shaky start in League Two, Santos quickly established himself as a key cog in a Bolton machine that was often being chopped and changed by manager Ian Evatt before they stumbled upon a formula that brought them automatic promotion, with Santos at the heart of the defence.

In League One, despite the odd high-profile poor performance mainly against local rivals Wigan Athletic, the Dagenham and Redbridge academy graduate was once again not only clearly quality for Bolton but quality in terms of the whole league.

Having been in the PFA Team of the Year for League Two in the 2020/21 campaign, whilst also winning Bolton Wanderers’ Player of the Year award in the same season, he was then named in the PFA Team of the Year in each of the following three seasons in League One – as well as the EFL League One Team of the Season for the 2022/23 campaign.

His ability to play magnificent diagonal balls and also play more grounded, incisive passes that could split open a defence was matched with a tenacity and aggression in a duel with an attacker that saw him win almost every one-on-one challenge, whilst also being a magnet for crosses put into the Bolton box.

Bolton conceded 36 goals in the 2022/23 League One season, with only Ipswich Town, who would go on to win Premier League promotion a year later, conceding fewer than the Whites.

In comparison to this season, where Santos, for a variety of reasons, has only managed 25 League One appearances, Wanderers conceded 70 goals in their 46 matches – only Barnsley and the bottom eight conceded more than a team that had been tipped as automatic promotion challengers.

A sad end for Santos at Bolton

It is a sad end for Santos at Bolton because it has gone out with a bit of a whimper with the defender enduring a fractious relationship with Wanderers supporters, having given up the armband earlier in the season, replaced by George Thomason.

Performances have certainly dipped in the last 18 months, but there will still be a concern that Wanderers did still seem even more susceptible to any sort of ball into the box or even an attack on their goal in his absence in the final few months of the campaign.

He was injured when Steven Schumacher arrived at the club and his only appearance came in a 4-1 hammering at the hands of Barnsley at Oakwell in mid-April in which the whole side combusted.

​​​​​​​

Santos’ peak level is way beyond that of what has been shown by any other current centre-back at the club and, whilst some are either pleased or nonplussed by his departure, it may well be that Wanderers fans realise just how good he was without him moving forward – as has already perhaps been the case in the last couple of months.