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Wanderers are preparing to wave goodbye to the old guard at Fulham tomorrow.
Senior stars such as Stephen Dobbie, Neil Danns, David Wheater and Emile Heskey could get a last outing at Craven Cottage before leaving the Macron at the end of their current contract.
The Whites will strip a few million pounds off their top-heavy wage budget in the summer by releasing several players but will still have their work cut out finding clubs to take other high earners off their books, even on loan deals.
Jimmy Phillips has helped to establish a core of young players for next season after he took on the impossible task of keeping Wanderers in the Championship.
And he believes that will help balance things out in League One, where the club will be subject to even tighter salary cap restrictions.
“Bringing players through the system will be the future of the club for the coming years,” he told The Bolton News. “Rob Holding has had a fantastic season, Zach Clough has chipped in with some important goals, these are players that will hopefully be the nucleus of the club for the future.
“Whether players come and go in the summer is down to the ownership.
“When Dean and Ken took over the club they would have had to show the Football League they could run the club with the players they had contracted to the club next season.
“How much leeway they have to offer someone who is out of contract in the summer and they want to keep, I don’t know.
“Whether or not that happens, whether it’s on severely-decreased terms, it’s the new manager’s call.
“That’s why I am reiterating the point it’s important things move quickly after the Fulham game so that the next man has the best possible chance of achieving what he wants next season.”
Phillips does want to bow out this season on the right note having picked up his first win in charge against Hull City last weekend.
Wanderers have gone more than a year without a win away from home but the interim boss believes the players are now more organised and better equipped to get points on their travels.
“We showed against Cardiff that if we are resilient we can always grab a goal. We’ll go to Fulham with the same philosophy,” he said.
“We don’t want to be seen as a group who couldn’t win away all season and this is our final shot.
“When you consider the last few minutes of the Hull game the players were under a lot of mental pressure to see the game out and this will require a similar approach.
“I am sure the players will go there with one thought, and that’s to win the game. But they know the best chance of doing that is not necessarily by playing open, expansive football, it’s by keeping things tight at the back.”
Phillips has also praised some of the more experienced members of his squad for continuing to keep their standards high in training despite knowing what the future might hold.
“People like Stephen Dobbie – his only start came against Reading and he had to go off with a cut. He’s applied himself great in training,” he added.
“Older players like Neil Danns, whose contract is up, and Jay Spearing, who has been unavailable to us, have worked very hard.
“The senior players who are due a discussion on whether they have a future here have applied themselves very well as you’d expect of any experienced player.”
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Senior stars such as Stephen Dobbie, Neil Danns, David Wheater and Emile Heskey could get a last outing at Craven Cottage before leaving the Macron at the end of their current contract.
The Whites will strip a few million pounds off their top-heavy wage budget in the summer by releasing several players but will still have their work cut out finding clubs to take other high earners off their books, even on loan deals.
Jimmy Phillips has helped to establish a core of young players for next season after he took on the impossible task of keeping Wanderers in the Championship.
And he believes that will help balance things out in League One, where the club will be subject to even tighter salary cap restrictions.
“Bringing players through the system will be the future of the club for the coming years,” he told The Bolton News. “Rob Holding has had a fantastic season, Zach Clough has chipped in with some important goals, these are players that will hopefully be the nucleus of the club for the future.
“Whether players come and go in the summer is down to the ownership.
“When Dean and Ken took over the club they would have had to show the Football League they could run the club with the players they had contracted to the club next season.
“How much leeway they have to offer someone who is out of contract in the summer and they want to keep, I don’t know.
“Whether or not that happens, whether it’s on severely-decreased terms, it’s the new manager’s call.
“That’s why I am reiterating the point it’s important things move quickly after the Fulham game so that the next man has the best possible chance of achieving what he wants next season.”
Phillips does want to bow out this season on the right note having picked up his first win in charge against Hull City last weekend.
Wanderers have gone more than a year without a win away from home but the interim boss believes the players are now more organised and better equipped to get points on their travels.
“We showed against Cardiff that if we are resilient we can always grab a goal. We’ll go to Fulham with the same philosophy,” he said.
“We don’t want to be seen as a group who couldn’t win away all season and this is our final shot.
“When you consider the last few minutes of the Hull game the players were under a lot of mental pressure to see the game out and this will require a similar approach.
“I am sure the players will go there with one thought, and that’s to win the game. But they know the best chance of doing that is not necessarily by playing open, expansive football, it’s by keeping things tight at the back.”
Phillips has also praised some of the more experienced members of his squad for continuing to keep their standards high in training despite knowing what the future might hold.
“People like Stephen Dobbie – his only start came against Reading and he had to go off with a cut. He’s applied himself great in training,” he added.
“Older players like Neil Danns, whose contract is up, and Jay Spearing, who has been unavailable to us, have worked very hard.
“The senior players who are due a discussion on whether they have a future here have applied themselves very well as you’d expect of any experienced player.”
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