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Conor Bradley’s pedigree upbringing at Liverpool will make his transition to life at Wanderers even easier, says Ian Evatt.
The 18-year-old wingback made a good first impression by creating a couple of goals at Longridge in midweek, having had just one training session with his new team-mates.
But Bolton boss Evatt reckons Bradley will adjust quicker because of the similarities between the two clubs’ approach to football.
“The way Liverpool coach their players is the way that I want to coach our players,” he said. “You can see with his (Bradley’s) understanding, the intensity of what he does, his work and the speed of what he does, it is everything that is ingrained in him at Liverpool.
“When he arrives here at Bolton it just comes naturally to him, so I’m delighted with him.
“Conor is an exciting young player, I’ve said that, and we are really pleased that we have got him.
“A lot of hard work’s been done to make sure we signed him, too. We identified him in January, as I said before, and he showed glimpses of what he’s capable of already.”
Although Wanderers had looked into signing Fulham’s Marlon Fossey, Evatt maintained that Bradley had been his original top target in the previous transfer window, so once his availability was confirmed by Liverpool this summer, he changed course.
The Bolton boss remains confident that he has signed the best available option.
“We have an identity, and we understand what the requirements are, position-specific, so we can go out there and find the best one suited to that role and Conor was certainly that.”
Evatt was pleased with his side’s performance on Tuesday night – and with the standards in training since the players’ return from a week-long camp in Portugal.
Speaking after the Longridge victory, he added: “Their energy and attitude is amazing and if ever we really needed a marker of to how far we’ve come in a year, if you look at the performance here last season to that performance is really a true indication of where we’re at. Their manager said exactly that to me after the game.”
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