Home
Almost everyone will be happy to wave goodbye to 2020 – including Ian Evatt.
The Wanderers boss walked into a new job in July hoping to revive the club’s fortunes but has since found the football landscape changed irrecoverably by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Whether the game can return to normality next year remains to be seen but Evatt remains committed to getting Bolton back into League One, whatever else is thrown at him.
“It has all been a bit crazy,” he said of his first six months at Bolton. “It is erratic, inconsistent, everything I don’t really like.
“I like structure, routine, I certainly like to win. It’s very much a work in progress.
“When I reflect and look back I feel like we’ve been dealt a rough hand. I am one of only two managers in the whole country to have not connected or seen my own support yet, which is crazy.
“We have had to massively restart and refresh everything throughout the entire football club and business due to the pandemic and where we are in the football pyramid now.
“With all that we’re trying to build a new team, a new squad, with a new way of playing.
“If we sat and reflected we could feel very sorry for ourselves. But my opinion of this football club and what it can achieve has not changed. I know we will get there, it’s just going to take a little bit of patience.”
Evatt believes empty stadia up and down the country during the pandemic has contributed to a number of freakish score-lines, caused by a change in the game’s mentality.
“Football in general is crazy, you see it up and down the pyramid,” he said. “In the Premier League you are seeing six, seven goals scored. And how often did we see that happen? Not often.
“It is all down to the pandemic and not having supporters. Players make different decisions when there are no fans and no pressure there.
“If you have 12,000 people screaming at you, the decision process is different. It is human nature.
“On Saturday if we’d have gone 2-0 down and our fans would have been baying for blood, you might have seen a bigger reaction from us and perhaps from the opposition as well.
“It is one of those strange seasons and fortunately for us we still have a chance even though we have been so inconsistent.
“I believe on our day and when we are playing to our strengths and training consistently well, we’re the best team in the division. Now people might say I’m deluded, we’re 15th in the league, but you guys have seen what we’re like when the team puts it together. There is no other team who can play the football we can but we have to cut out the nonsense and be better in the goals we concede.”
Source
The Wanderers boss walked into a new job in July hoping to revive the club’s fortunes but has since found the football landscape changed irrecoverably by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Whether the game can return to normality next year remains to be seen but Evatt remains committed to getting Bolton back into League One, whatever else is thrown at him.
“It has all been a bit crazy,” he said of his first six months at Bolton. “It is erratic, inconsistent, everything I don’t really like.
“I like structure, routine, I certainly like to win. It’s very much a work in progress.
“When I reflect and look back I feel like we’ve been dealt a rough hand. I am one of only two managers in the whole country to have not connected or seen my own support yet, which is crazy.
“We have had to massively restart and refresh everything throughout the entire football club and business due to the pandemic and where we are in the football pyramid now.
“With all that we’re trying to build a new team, a new squad, with a new way of playing.
“If we sat and reflected we could feel very sorry for ourselves. But my opinion of this football club and what it can achieve has not changed. I know we will get there, it’s just going to take a little bit of patience.”
Evatt believes empty stadia up and down the country during the pandemic has contributed to a number of freakish score-lines, caused by a change in the game’s mentality.
“Football in general is crazy, you see it up and down the pyramid,” he said. “In the Premier League you are seeing six, seven goals scored. And how often did we see that happen? Not often.
“It is all down to the pandemic and not having supporters. Players make different decisions when there are no fans and no pressure there.
“If you have 12,000 people screaming at you, the decision process is different. It is human nature.
“On Saturday if we’d have gone 2-0 down and our fans would have been baying for blood, you might have seen a bigger reaction from us and perhaps from the opposition as well.
“It is one of those strange seasons and fortunately for us we still have a chance even though we have been so inconsistent.
“I believe on our day and when we are playing to our strengths and training consistently well, we’re the best team in the division. Now people might say I’m deluded, we’re 15th in the league, but you guys have seen what we’re like when the team puts it together. There is no other team who can play the football we can but we have to cut out the nonsense and be better in the goals we concede.”
Source