A MANAGER, a team, a fanbase humiliated by the play-off final failure, a club facing a battle to maintain the positivity it has enjoyed in recent years.
These are interesting times indeed for Bolton Wanderers, who are now considering the reality of a fourth consecutive year at this level of football for the third time in their history.
Although there was a brief dip, salvaged by Jimmy Armfield in the early 1970s, the only extended fallow period outside the top two divisions occurred between the tight early 1980s and the revival years under Phil Neal and Bruce Rioch in the early 1990s. and were separated by a lonely season in the doldrums of the old Division Four.
If football moves in cycles, we currently find ourselves somewhere in the middle between the last two managers of Burnden Park, one man remembered for knocking on the promotion door but never getting through, the other for building that solid foundation had taken and reinvented a club. in the space of three short years, leading to Premier League football.
Ian Evatt doesn’t want his name to be remembered as a supporting act like Neal, as someone who did all the dirty work but didn’t get any credit. He now has two failed attempts in the playoffs, so next season promises to be his chance to break away from the mainstream equations.
For 85 percent of their existence, Wanderers have occupied a place in England’s top two divisions, which has mainly contributed to a general sense of displacement in the bottom half of the Football League.
Of course, the club’s most recent fall from grace was accelerated by financial factors and nefarious ownership. Had Football Ventures not stepped in to pull it back from the cliff’s edge five years ago, chances are Bolton would have gone the way of their neighbors Bury and been forced to start all over again. Wanderers fans have always recognized the debt they owe on that front.
Evatt and Co had to start from scratch, an unenviable feat in the middle of a pandemic, but some four years, 92 players, 226 games, 115 wins and one promotion later we have reached a convergence between expectation and performance. Some even argue that Bolton has crossed the line into underperforming given the resources they now have.
Missing out, first in automatic promotion and then against Oxford United in the final itself, was a damaging ego blow. Evatt – and some of his players – were quoted during the campaign as believing Bolton were the ‘best team in the league’. And as anyone who has ventured onto social media over the past two weeks will agree, the rest of the football club has been taking notes.
But they were not empty words. The manager and his team are fueled by self-confidence, even bordering on arrogance, and the belief that they were the best around was very real. And Evatt’s genuine faith in his players and his football philosophy continued until the very last of the 99 minutes at Wembley.
In some cases, that loyalty may have come at a cost. His parting words in the capital about considering change have been interpreted in many ways in the quiet fortnight that followed, but the extent to which he refreshes the squad could now be the most important decision of his time at the helm.
This may also apply to his response to criticism of tactical flexibility. Over the course of four years we’ve witnessed changes in the team’s shape, but last season’s big shift to 3-1-4-2 has stuck, with rare exceptions. Football website Whoscored.com cites the only exception to a five-man midfield as the Carabao Cup win against Barrow, in which the starting formation was announced as a 3-4-3.
Faced with the oft-repeated ‘lack of Plan B’ argument, Evatt has often cited the ability to change in-game as a strength. He has repeatedly changed the balance of his central midfielders to take into account the opponent’s weaknesses. Likewise, he has used different types of attackers depending on how directly he felt his team should move the ball to the front line.
Apart from these nuances, larger-scale formation changes are rare. Even as the play-off final slipped from their grasp earlier this month, the response seemed to be a change of personnel within the system, rather than the system itself.
Evatt remains adamant that his plan could take the club out of League One and that, had he played 90 poor minutes against Oxford, he could have had the evidence to back up his argument. Reputations are built and destroyed on such small margins.
The manager can point to four seasons of improving the league position as proof his methods are working, although a third-place finish last season means anything short of automatic promotion would ruin the direction of the graph.
He has also cited examples of other bigger clubs who have failed at this level, including clubs such as Ipswich Town and Sunderland, who had bigger playing budgets than his.
As the Championship’s finances went from absurd to ridiculous, League One has also become a tar pit for clubs with rich reputations who may have fallen on hard times. Portsmouth – deserving winners of the division in 2023/24 – were chained to this level of football for seven long seasons before things finally started moving in the right direction.
In all cases, clubs eager for promotion from this level have also changed managers. Sheffield United had five different names, Sunderland tried four, Pompey three before finally emerging. Wanderers are an anomaly in that sense.
Holding on and sticking with Evatt and his team is as important a decision as any that will be made this summer. Although Sharon Brittan recently rightly highlighted in Parliament the outrageous demands placed on owners at Championship level, it should not be underestimated that as a League One club that investment still amounts to a hefty chunk of cash – more than £5 million in the last series of matches. accounts.
Bolton remains a very well-supported club with a brilliant football history, but also a very expensive operation to run. So it wouldn’t be a big surprise if some of the play equipment was sold in recent seasons.
The expectation will not change. Wanderers fans will still be clamoring to see their club challenge at the top of the table from August, no matter how competitive the division becomes.
However, it may be that the disappointment at Wembley changes perceptions, and that any wrongful entitlement has been taken away from the squad and its supporters.
Less than a fortnight after yellow ribbons were tied to the trophy at Wembley, Bolton must move on and prove himself with actions, not words.