'I like what we have become' - Evatt on why he didn't make deadline day signings

Wanderers backed away from bringing in late signings on deadline day – with Ian Evatt insisting he would not gamble on the club’s future.

The Bolton boss claims he was offered a “staggering” quality of Premier League and Championship player to loan over the last few weeks, only deciding against a move on the final day.

Evatt did make enquiries about loaning at least one striker – widely believed to be QPR’s Macauley Bonne – but as The Bolton News went to press last night he looked set to remain in West London.

That Wanderers were seen as a good destination for young talents from the top flight should be worn as a badge of pride, says Evatt, who had already brought in Liverpool’s Owen Beck and Conor Bradley and Manchester City’s James Trafford earlier in the window alongside permanent signings Jack Iredale and Eoin Toal.

“It is mad, bonkers in fact,” he said of the transfer clamour. “For me it just shows the amount of money in the game that clubs are willing to sacrifice so much of someone’s salary to get them out playing and in the shop window again. It’s baffling, but that’s the game we’re in.

“All of my decisions, with the help of Chris (Markham), were made knowing we had followed a mould we’d set and a trend we had set here. It is really important to me.

“I like what we have become as a football club, I really do, you guys (the media) certainly do and I think our fans do as well and we are not going to go back to that era where we feel uncomfortable about doing things which we think might have short-term success but long-term will put this club at risk. We just won’t do that.”

The lack of business on deadline day did leave some Wanderers fans a little cold – but Evatt says he stepped away from transfers with a cool head, believing the squad he has built up over the previous couple of windows is good enough to remain in promotion contention until the next window in January.

“The message I will be giving to my players tomorrow morning is that we have an incredible amount of opportunities to bring players in and I’ve chosen to support and believe in the ones that I have already got.

“Hopefully that gives them the belief and confidence to really go on and kick on, because I do believe it’s there for them.

“I’ve seen so many good things and Tuesday night (against Crewe) and people will say it’s against lesser opposition, but those games are never easy and some of the football that we played and the way we moved and created chances, it was exceptional.

“We put 26 shots on goal and 14 on target, which are massive numbers, really. We are not talking about speculative shots either, we are talking about opportunities within the penalty box and if we can keep creating what we did do at Plymouth and on Tuesday night, I know our players will take the chances.”

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So many good things?

The man is deluded. We cant buy a goal.

There are glaring gaps in our squad and Evatt himself admitted that he’d been offered fantastic players yet he chose not to take them saying he’s pleased with what he’s got. It sounds rather similar to the start of last season when he said we didn’t need another striker and relied on just Doyle when everyone knew he wasn’t enough. We could have had Stockton for free as his contract was up but we had to wait until January when we’d lost ground. I do like Evatt but sometimes I think he thinks he’s cleverer than he is and I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite us again. A couple of quality signings and I’d have been confident of at least the play offs but now I’m not so sure.