Bolton Wanderers: Steven Schumacher set to complete Plymouth Argyle raid | OneFootball

Steven Schumacher is looking to be reunited with Jimmy Dickinson, the current Head of Recruitment at Plymouth Argyle, at Bolton Wanderers.

Ahead of the summer transfer window, Bolton Wanderers are looking at something of a rebuild of their squad and they are making some important moves off-the-field in order to strengthen on it with the arrival of Plymouth Argyle’s Head of Recruitment, Jimmy Dickinson.

The Trotters finished the 2024/25 League One season with some fairly feeble performances and they eventually finished eighth and ten points off the top six and the play-off places, despite being tipped up as automatic promotion contenders at the start of the campaign and even in the top six with just six games of the season to go.

They managed to collect just seven points from their final 11 games of the campaign with Schumacher hinting at the fact that Wanderers needed an overhaul but that would be difficult with so many players under contract.

Wanderers’ previous Director of Football Chris Markham departed the club a couple of months ago and is due to be replaced by Standard Liege’s Sporting Director Fergal Harkin this summer, with a major focus now on their recruitment process.

Bolton Wanderers poised to raid Plymouth Argyle for recruitment chief Jimmy Dickinson

According to Alan Nixon, via his Patreon, Jimmy Dickinson, who is currently still Head of Recruitment at Plymouth, is ‘ready to quit’ his role down in Devon and move to Wanderers.

He would be reunited with Bolton boss Schumacher, who was appointed Wanderers manager back in January following the departure of Ian Evatt, who had been in charge for four-and-a-half years.

Nixon has said that Bolton are ‘on the look-out for four or five new players’ this summer and Schumacher is expected to receive the help of a former colleague at both Plymouth and Bury.

Schumacher was assistant to now Wigan Athletic boss Ryan Lowe at Bury before moving with Lowe down to Plymouth and eventually replacing Lowe as manager when the former striker moved to Preston North End.

Dickinson was the Chief Analyst at Gigg Lane with the Shakers between November 2014 and June 2019 before taking on the same role at Home Park until June 2022 and then eventually moving into his current position with the Pilgrims.

With Jimmy Dickinson by his side, Steven Schumacher will have no excuses for Bolton Wanderers in 2025-26

Bolton began a new era of sorts back in January when manager Evatt departed the club before the sale of top scorer and star striker Dion Charles was sanctioned to league rivals Huddersfield Town.

Wanderers have since massively struggled in the league and underperformed even more than they already were doing with Schumacher, suggesting he didn’t realise how big the job was that he had taken on.

In their retained list following the conclusion of the campaign, Wanderers also let go former captain Ricardo Santos, vice-captain Gethin Jones and goalkeeper Nathan Baxter to further move into what will be hoped is a fresh start.

Schumacher has had his complaints about the club’s recruitment strategy and has talked of changes with a want to recruit to a different system as well as more of an eye test, rather than just using data.

They have already been linked with several players in the last week or so, such as Sean Roughan of Lincoln City and Doncaster Rovers’ Chelsea loanee goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe, as revealed by FLW exclusively.

With Harkin arriving at the Toughsheet Community Stadium this month as sporting director, Dickinson reportedly set to move himself and Schumacher’s desire for some change, it is expected to be busy at Bolton this summer, and with a fresh transfer team around him, the Wanderes boss won't be able to argue that it's not his squad anymore.