Pressure should be on another Bolton Wanderers key figure after January window slams shut | OneFootball

Following the departure of Ian Evatt last month, the pressure is expected to ramp up on DoF Chris Markham if Bolton continue to underperform.

Bolton Wanderers headed into the winter transfer window sitting eighth in League One but they have exited the potentially pivotal month sitting ninth in the table with a few key changes in the first-team squad as well as having a new manager.

After over a year of underperformance that saw Bolton collapse away from automatic promotion last season before a 2-0 defeat to Oxford United in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium, the Trotters parted company with Ian Evatt in mid-January as they languished in the middle of the third division.

For a club expected to have been in the Championship by now in what is the sixth season under the ownership of Football Ventures, who admittedly took over under difficult circumstance, it has been a miserable campaign with many supporters reasonably believing that their already relatively lowly position in the table is flattering to them.

Given that Bolton went off as one of the pre-season title favourites, to have come through the winter window in ninth questions whether something deeper than the aforementioned departed manager simply have to be asked at this stage.

One person who has begun to become a part of the supporters’ firing line is director of football Chris Markham, who oversees and leads the decision-making process on the football side of things.

Bolton Wanderers are weaker than a month ago

During the January transfer window, Bolton brought in long-term target Joel Randall from Peterborough United as well as a couple of loanees, Alex Murphy and Kion Etete, from Newcastle United and Cardiff City respectively.

In terms of outgoings, Randell Williams joined Leyton Orient on the final day of the transfer window, whilst Dion Charles moved to Huddersfield Town for a fee believed to be in the region of £750,000.

Two seasons ago, Charles became the first Bolton player to score 20 or more in a season since Michael Ricketts. Last term, became the first Trotter since John McGinlay to score 20 plus goals in back-to-back seasons. This season, Charles became the first man to score 50 goals for Wanderers since Kevin Nolan.

Even after a disappointing campaign this time around, he was the club's top scorer in the league at the time of his sale to Huddersfield.

Bolton, who went into the window with only two recognised strikers, needing another, could only bring in Kion Etete on loan from Cardiff City to go alongside Victor Adeboyejo as the out-and-out number nines in their squad.

Rather than add another striker alongside Charles and Adeboyejo, Wanderers sold the latter – for a fee lower than fans will have been hoping for – and replaced their most reliable source of goals with a player that has only 11 senior goals to his name in the EFL, despite having made 83 appearances.

They added a sixth attacking midfielder to their squad with the arrival of Randall, who now accompanied Aaron Collins, John McAtee, Carlos Mendes Gomes and Klaidi Lolos, as well as Scott Arfield before his departure to Falkirk, in the same role.

Adjustments were needed at the back as well but only Alex Murphy, a young and versatile left-sided defender was brought in. In the eyes of many, Wanderers are weaker than they were heading into January.

A pattern in the market has emerged for Bolton

This window has left Bolton arguably weaker than what they were and definitely short from where they needed and wanted to be – and it is not the first time that this has happened in the last few years.

Following promotion to League One, the summer of 2021 saw Bolton conclude their business in early August with many supporters surprised by the lack of arrivals and by the autumn of that year, they were heading into games with what was simply a mess of a squad, depleted in every area with a classic ‘injury crisis’ of 13 fit first-team players. They had to resolve it and did so in the winter window of 2022.

The summer of 2022 was once again a quiet one with a focus on defensive positions and that left Bolton short in attack, especially when the decision to sell Dapo Afolayan was taken in January 2023. The poor planning of that sale and execution of what followed has been well documented and outlined with it being seen as the key reason as to Bolton’s recent stagnation.

The summer of 2023, with failed moves for Kane Wilson and Keanu Baccus, was a wasted opportunity to capitalise on a wide open league that Bolton were even in control with as late as January 2024 despite being quiet in the previous summer, but that poor window eventually bit them as they suffered their aforementioned collapse.

The summer of 2024, with failed moves for even more players such as Danny Armstrong and Karamoko Dembele as well as January addition Randall, was once again a wasted opportunity and Bolton have this time failed to make amends in the winter.

Markham, assisted by Ludonautics, has overseen all of this. Bolton have stagnated and become weaker with the squad having peaked in most areas and the overall lack of quality and depth no longer really being there.

He can and should be praised for his ability to identify talent and there are a lot of excellent examples of good business in terms of incomings but the overly conservative and risk-averse nature of that talent ID has led to a situation where Bolton are often short in key areas of the pitch.

He and the aforementioned Ludonautics are smart operators but when operating on a smaller budget than you would prefer, you can perhaps become too smart for your own good.