BACKED NOT SACKED
How boss Evatt has turned Bolton into promotion material... thanks to a patient chairman
LOSING your first five games after being named the bookies’ favourites to win League Two is not the best start to a new job.
But Bolton manager Ian Evatt and, probably more importantly, Sharon Brittan, the club’s chairman, kept their collective nerve.
Fast-forward to the business end of the season and the Trotters are on a fantastic run with promotion in their sights.
It has been a whirlwind campaign with huge changes of players – eight came in during the January transfer window – and Evatt demanding a more attractive style of play.
At one stage Bolton were treading water in 19th place – a far cry from the exhilarating Premier League days under Sam Allardyce.
Social media was beginning to turn on Evatt, who had left Barrow for a huge new challenge after leading them into the EFL.
Eleven wins in the last 14 games has backed up the ambitious 39-year-old’s belief that he could breathe new life into a club which had gone into administration, and was 48 hours away from folding.
Evatt said: “I was always confident, but it was obviously going to take time.
“It was start-fromscratch, a complete reset and rebuild.
“Bolton had paid out a fair bit in compensation for me and luckily the board
have given me time. Losing the first five games was obviously a very poor start.
“I think the recruitment in the summer wasn’t good enough if I’m brutally honest.
“We were also teaching new ideas to a completely new group of players, in the middle of a pandemic, who can’t socialise, can’t build any relationships or do anything outside the football
club because of the strict protocols.
“It takes time to teach players to play a whole new way and with a new identity.
“I did the recruitment in January and I feel we recruited a lot better.
“And since then we haven’t looked back.
“It wasn’t hard for me to stick to my beliefs because how could I get anybody to believe in the way we play if I don’t believe it myself ?
“In tough times that’s the mark of a man really – and of how much you really do believe in your philosophy and the way you coach.”
Bolton’s recent run of results – which included 10 wins in an 11-game period during February and March has prompted some admiring glances throughout football – it’s been almost Pep Guardiola-esque. Evatt added: “To go on these types of runs lower down the pyramid is really, really difficult.
“It happens at the top end of the game because Manchester City can spend hundreds of millions and they can recruit the best players, the best manager, and play on great football pitches.
“When you’re in League Two and having to go away to places like Port Vale with difficult pitches and people throwing obstacles in your way it’s challenging mentally, physically and technically to go on these types of runs. The players have been outstanding.”
And he reckons so has Bolton’s chairman, who led the takeover of the club in August 2019.
Evatt added: “Sharon is outstanding. Football needs more people like her involved in it. She is so positive, she is inspiring.
“She has built the trust again with the support and the town. She has really supported me and backed me especially in the hard times. Hopefully she is now seeing the benefits of that.
“There’s huge potential. It was always going to be a difficult decision for me to leave Barrow after what I achieved there.
“I didn’t really want to leave for another stepping-stone club.
“I wanted somewhere in which I could grow with that club and Bolton offered huge potential in the size of the club and where it can get to.
“Hopefully together, myself and Bolton can progress back through the ranks of English football and back to the top of the tree.”