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Wanderers boss Ian Evatt has urged fans not to rush into snap judgements on his January recruits.
Even as Bolton stand on the brink of qualifying for the play-offs – which could happen today if they beat Fleetwood and Peterborough fail to beat Bristol Rovers – the success of their work in the previous transfer window has been a big talking point among supporters.
The Whites added Victor Adeboyejo from Burton, Randell Williams from Hull and Cameron Jerome from Luton on permanent deals, plus the loans of Shola Shoretire from Manchester United, Dan Nlundulu from Southampon and Luke Mbete from Manchester City.
Evatt is confident his contracted players in particular will benefit from a full pre-season and believes they still have time left to make a big impact on the current campaign, as it reaches an exciting finale.
“Everyone is going to analyse January’s recruitment, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, football is a subjective sport and everyone thinks they can do my job better than me, everyone thinks they can recruit better than we have,” he told The Bolton News.
“All I can say is that we have won a trophy and we are still fifth in the league. And we were there in January, so we are no worse off.
“I think we are still progressing and, yes, there will be moments where we dip below. That is the level we are at. We have a lot of young players in that squad and they are still learning, they are not the finished product.
“People should really be careful with analysing January so soon. It’s three months on.
“I’ll use Kyle Dempsey as an example. When we signed him last January we didn’t see anything like what we have seen this season from Kyle.
“Sometimes it is hard to settle in a new place mid-season when you have been used to being coached and playing in a completely different way. You haven’t had the benefit of grass time and training detail. That comes in pre-season and I think with all the permanent recruits – Victor (Adeboyejo), Randell (Williams) – we will see a huge difference.
“For now it is about getting them up to speed for where we want them to be right here, right now, as quickly as we possibly can. It isn’t easy and I think we should cut them some slack, they are not doing badly. We’re not doing badly. We are in a strong position and we need to stick together, keep fighting and hopefully reach our goal, which is the play-offs right now.”
Wanderers remain fifth on goal difference from Derby County, who host mid-table Portsmouth this afternoon.
It seems likely that the play-off matter will go down to the last weekend of the season, where a sell-out contingent of around 1,200 Bolton fans will travel down to Bristol Rovers hoping to extend their season.
Evatt is prepared for all eventualities.
“We are feeling confident,” he said. “It probably will go down to the wire, and if it does then we will have to manage that. I think our performances have been okay considering we have been missing our captain and another international defender like Eoin Toal plus Jack Iredale and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, not bad at all, in fact.
“If we can start putting away a few more chances then I think we can get the results we need.”
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