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Ian Evatt admits League One took him by surprise at times this season.
The Wanderers boss had set his sights on a second successive promotion at the UniBol but quickly found that the task was going to be harder than he had anticipated.
A shift in the economy at League One level brought bigger budgets that dwarfed his own and with it a standard of football which was a considerable step up on previous campaigns.
Seven of the 24 teams in action last term had previously competed in the Premier League – and that total could increase next season with the introduction of Barnsley and Derby County, who were relegated from the Championship.
And Evatt reckons the influx of ‘bigger clubs’ and budgets has created an imbalanced competition.
“I think personally if we’re all honest and open, we’ve all been surprised at the level of expenditure in this division this season and also I’ve been surprised in terms of the technical level itself,” he explained.
“That is down to better players and bigger clubs spending more money. I think there’s a huge gulf between the top half of this league and the bottom and that’s no disrespect to the bottom at all, but we’re talking about ex-Premier League teams here. We’re talking about teams with huge fanbases, huge revenues, spending vast amounts of money.”
According to Transfermrkt.com, the overall expenditure on transfer fees at League One level in 2021/22 was just over £6.5million, or £271,500 per club. That was set against an income of more than £14m (£599,753 per club).
Wage levels are also thought to have increased, although accurate measures will only be possible once all clubs publish their annual accounts.
It has been said this season that Bolton’s wage budget is around sixth or seventh highest in the division and Evatt does not foresee the club spending beyond their means despite their ambition to play in the Championship.
But he concedes that the money needed to keep up with the top clubs in League One will continue to increase, leaving his club with a decision to make on budgets for next season.
Asked about overspending, he said: “We don’t want to be that to be truthful, we want to be smarter and more strategic than that, but we do recognise that we might need to spend some more money to make us more competitive and to give us a better chance of getting into the Championship.
“That doesn't guarantee you anything. Spending money doesn’t guarantee you success and that’s important to recognise as well that if it was that way, then football would be a pretty boring game because everyone would know exactly where you’d finish every season with what you spend.
“But it’s about building from the bottom, building structures and platforms and solid bases to be able to succeed from and I think that’s exactly what we’ve done.
“Yes, we recognise that we may need to recruit more and spend a little bit more but in no way shape or form does that mean we’re going to oversell or spend more.
“We want to be smart, we want to be strategic and what I must say is all the work that’s going on with everybody involved in the football club - I’m talking about the commercial department selling advertising, the hotel, people using and spending money there, the events that we have, all the staff that’s involved in that - it’s a collective effort.”
One factor counting in Wanderers’ favour has been the huge uptake of season tickets, which helped in January’s recruitment and have already given Evatt a good head start this summer.
“The fans have been absolutely brilliant buying tickets,” he said, with Wanderers shifting more than 12,500 season tickets to date.
“All that helps make us more sustainable and gives us a better platform to go and recruit better players. We’re excited, we know we need to do more, we will do more, we know what’s needed in the summer and good times are coming.”
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