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It is no secret that Ian Evatt has ambitions to take Wanderers into the Championship, and the boss says that goal will influence the club’s decisions in the transfer market.
The Whites currently sit fifth in the League One table ahead of tonight’s clash against Lincoln City at Sincil Bank (7.45pm).
While Wanderers aren’t in a position to spend “crazy amounts of money” in the January window, Evatt is still eager to bring in players with good potential.
The Bolton boss knows getting out of the third tier is not easy but is looking to land signings who could “adapt” to the challenges of Championship football.
“We are looking for players that we believe still have value and growth in them,” the manager explained.
“We are not quite at the position of other clubs who just go out and spend crazy amounts of money and only look at the here and now.
“We want to try to build a team of assets but also build a team of progressive footballers who we feel can improve by being coached and adapt to higher divisions if and when that comes. We work very hard at that, but it is really difficult.”
Wanderers enter the transfer window in a very different position to 12 months ago, when they were in desperate need of reinforcements after an injury crisis.
Evatt is much happier with his squad this time around and says he is looking to add “one or two bits” as the Whites aim to keep climbing the table.
“Where we started from to where we are now in my third season here, we have had to constantly evolve and adapt because the gaps between the divisions are huge,” he added. “To have a competitive division in League One, you have to keep evolving during transfer windows.
“The players we signed in League Two to get us out of that league might have taken us as far as we could go, so we needed to constantly evolve the squad and we have done.
“This window is slightly different. We are happy with the vast majority of the squad and we just need to add one or two bits that we fell can improve us and make us even more competitive, and we are trying to do that.
“We have made our plans, we have targeted who we want to target and we will see how that goes.”
Tonight’s opponents are unbeaten at home in the league this season, and Evatt is expecting another tough test.
“I think they are a good footballing team, pretty well coached. They obviously had a disappointing result the other day and they will be looking for a reaction,” he said.
“Obviously, with us comes big crowds, big expectancy and people normally rise to that occasion.
“We know we are going to have to play well and make sure we show the best version of ourselves and try to win the game.”
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