Bolton Wanderers: Sharon Brittan’s Ian Evatt comments could suggest quiet transfer window: View | OneFootball

A few weeks after Bolton Wanderers suffered a humbling 2-0 defeat to Oxford United in the League One play-off final at Wembley, the club eventually made contact with their supporters to rally the fanbase and explain decisions that will be made over the summer.

Within that statement, Sharon Brittan discussed how important it is for her and the club to show loyalty to Ian Evatt, especially as it comes a few weeks after Brittan told a parliamentary inquiry that the former Barrow boss had rejected high financial offers from clubs in the Championship but had turned them down to stay at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

With the overarching intent of the statement essentially being that continuity will be key to continue Bolton’s upwards trajectory, it could perhaps give a few pointers to what may unfold during this summer’s transfer window.

A quiet few weeks ahead

The immediate aftermath of that aforementioned play-off final defeat saw many Wanderers fans crying out for big changes to be made to the squad and backroom staff but the board stayed calm, allowed time to pass and addressed the situation with pretty much full-fledged support.

That would indicate there is not going to be much upheaval going on at Wanderers this summer off the pitch and, as a result, there is unlikely to be much going on on it.

In fact, at this early stage of the summer, only two fringe players, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Cameron Jerome, have departed the club at the end of their contract, as well as Declan John who has spent the season out on loan; whilst Paris Maghoma is the only one of five loanees who will be sorely missed in the first-team frame.

That would, just using that as a gauge, suggest that not many incomings are needed to fill gaps in a starting eleven that did only just narrowly miss out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season and then in a one-off play-off final.

Trusting the process

The idea that Wanderers don’t need to be overly active and can be content with a quiet transfer window, as Brittan’s suggestions of loyalty would suggest, is actually a fair one.

As mentioned, the margins between gaining promotion and not for Bolton were very, very fine and they will believe that injuries in the second half of the campaign, most notably to Nathan Baxter and Dion Charles, were the main reasons for their mini but fatal collapse.

The Trotters may perhaps tweak their system but and there will need to be replacements found for the likes of Maghoma, Dadi Bodvarsson, and Jerome but they aren’t too far away from having another squad capable of challenging for promotion once again.

Drastic changes were asked for in the hot-headed aftermath of the end of their season within the fanbase but with things cooling off and perspective added, loyalty spoken about by the owner and a silence that many can take as a determination to put things right – they weren’t that far away anyway and, albeit signings are needed, it will not need an overhaul and that is not something to be expected.