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Randell Williams has described how broken promises at his former club Hull City left him in a difficult spot last year.
Now eager to start a new chapter with Wanderers, the pacy wing-back explained how a dream deal with Hull City in the Championship 18 months ago quickly unravelled into the toughest spell of his career.
Williams had earned a big move in the summer of 2021 after a successful spell with Exeter City and by the turn of the New Year had began to earn regular first team football.
But a torn knee ligament sustained in a win at Bournemouth coincided with a huge changes around the Humberside club, with new Turkish owner Acun Illicali dispensing with the man that signed him, Grant McCann, and bringing in his own manager, Shota Arveladze.
Despite fighting his way back to fitness and catching the eye with some of his pre-season games for Hull City – managed since November by Liam Rosenior – the 26-year-old knew him time was up when he was left behind to train with the kids as the first team squad jetted out to Turkey for a warm weather camp during the World Cup.
“It was all really difficult,” he told The Bolton News. “The takeover, the new management, but most of all it was that I was told I’d be a big part of their plans and I clearly wasn’t.
“That is the most frustrating thing as a player, when you are being told something and then you don’t get a reason for being out of the team.
“I know they have a lot of players and it wasn’t just hard for myself, there were others who didn’t get the chance. It is a really difficult time, mentally, when you never get that shot no matter how well you train.
“I am happy to have moved on and put that behind me.”
Williams has played seven times in the Championship this season but started just once, his last appearance being as a substitute in a 2-0 defeat against Birmingham City back in October.
The former Crystal Palace man felt he could have left Hull City sooner had the club been more upfront about his place in the pecking order after the post-takeover churn.
“I think as footballers you can accept and understand it,” he said of the usual to-and-fro which follows a change in management. “When people tell you something and then deliver the complete opposite, that is where problems are caused.
“If a player is told from the start ‘listen, we’re going in a different direction’ from the start then you can accept it.
“For me it was ‘you’re a big part of the plan’ and I wasn’t. It was really difficult because I could have left in the summer, which would have been better for me, mentally.
“I tried to stay as fit as possible and train well every day, that is part and parcel of the job.”
Williams knew he would be looking for a new club in January once he was demoted during the winter by new boss Rosenior.
He said: “I was training with the first team up until November and then the gaffer said to me that he wasn’t going to take me on tour, having told me he wanted to be a part of the team. It went from one day to one week, out of nowhere.
“I didn’t go on tour, which was fine, and then put into the Under-23s with a couple of the boys.
“It isn’t ideal, and a lot of footballers have to go through that sort of thing. You just have to stay as positive as possible.”
Williams had little time to acclimatise after his transfer to Bolton was confirmed last week, making his debut against League One leaders Plymouth Argyle less than 48 hours later.
He had watched Wanderers play against Barnsley at Oakwell several days before but felt that a midweek cameo from the bench against Portsmouth in the Papa Johns Trophy highlighted better what he can do.
“I was surprised I got 75 minutes against Plymouth, to be honest, I cramped up a couple of times,” he smiled.
“I managed myself well and felt a lot better coming on against Portsmouth, better within myself, so hopefully a couple more games and I will be flying.
“I felt comfortable on Tuesday night, carried the ball more, did what I am actually good at.
“Getting back into football is such a good thing for me.”
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