Exclusive: Sky Sports pundit reacts to "win-win" Bolton Wanderers transfer | OneFootball

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman reacts as former Chelsea forward Mason Burstow goes on loan from Hull to Bolton for the 2025-26 season.

Forward Mason Burstow has had a stop-start career so far since leaving the Chelsea set-up, and now he's headed on loan from Hull City to League One Bolton Wanderers.

Bolton are still fine-tuning their first team squad in advance of the big kick-off in League One, and eleven new players have already arrived at the Toughsheet Community Stadium this summer. \

They ended the 2024-25 season in 8th place in the table, but although they were only two points short of a play-off spot, the gap between them and 6th-placed Leyton Orient was ten points, a gap they'll be looking to close this season.

With such a high number of players coming into the club, attacking options haven't been overlooked.

The club had already secured the services of striker Sam Dalby, who was released by Wrexham at the end of his contract, and they've now added a further attacking option in the form of Mason Burstow, who was at Hull City for the 2024-25 season and has now moved to Bolton on a season-long loan.

Burstow loan is a "win-win for all parties", according to Don Goodman

Football League World have spoken exclusively to Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman about this loan, and he feels that Burstow's decision to step down to League One could work well for all concerned: "I think the loan transfer of Mason Burstow from Hull to Bolton is a win-win for all parties, really. He's a player with bags and bags of potential. He hasn't managed to show it on a consistent basis, he only started eight games for Hull last season, and only started 12 for Sunderland the season before when he was there on loan from Chelsea."

Goodman believes that Burstow still needs to finesse his instinct in front of goal, and that Bolton could be the right place to do it: "He's not really found the knack of finding the back of the net, which of course as a striker is what it's all about. So I think that a drop down to League One, to a good footballing team like Bolton Wanderers, who you will expect to be dominating a lot of games that they play in, winning a lot of games that they play in, scoring lots of goals, could be the opportunity for him to really kick-start his career."

Burstow needs to get into the habit of scoring goals

Mason Burstow was signed by Chelsea in 2022, but stayed on loan with his first club, Charlton Athletic, before making his Premier League debut for Chelsea in August 2023. Less than a couple of weeks after this, though, he was sent on loan to Sunderland, but never really caught light as a striker there, managing just one goal in 20 games.

In the summer of 2024, Chelsea sold him to Hull City, but last season was a difficult one for him, and he found it difficult to hold down a place in the Hull team, largely appearing from the bench and scoring just twice in 31 appearances.

Don Goodman identifies that the issue is the habit-forming nature of scoring goals. With just three League goals in his first two full seasons as a senior professional, Burstow needs to build that up, and going to a team such as Bolton Wanderers, who are expected to dominate games and create chances in League One next season, could be his best opportunity to do this.