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Progression is evident everywhere you look at Bolton Wanderers.
On the pitch, a team that fought its way out of lockdown to gain promotion from League Two, establish themselves once again in the third tier and then evolve once again to claim silverware at Wembley and a play-off spot that guarantees a shot at Championship football.
Led by a coveted and bullish young manager in Ian Evatt, the team has played an attacking brand of football that has convinced thousands of Boltonians back to watch their team. Furthermore, new heroes have been created – from 20-goal striker Dion Charles, and local-lad-made-good Aaron Morley to defensive diamond-in-the-rough Eoin Toal or all-action midfield man Kyle Dempsey.
Wanderers have been trusted to foster the football talents of Manchester City and England Under-21s’ James Trafford and Liverpool’s precocious Northern Ireland international Conor Bradley, who swept the board of honours at the end-of-season awards.
Off the field the progression is no less impressive. Football Ventures picked Bolton up from the wreckage of administration and have steadily unpicked a complex web of legacy debts to leave the club in their healthiest financial position for some time.
Negligent previous owners had eroded or destroyed relationships with so many local businesses – leaving so many people out of pocket. Yet a packed room on Saturday night, filled with the town’s movers and shakers was ample proof that times are a changing.
At the centre of it all, Sharon Brittan, the Bolton chairman who has embodied this transformative spell. Wanderers were on life support when she and the board finally wrestled control, a founder member of the Football League, four-time winners of the FA Cup, the club of Nat Lofthouse, John McGinlay, Frank Worthington, Kevin Davies, Ivan Campo, Youri Djorkaeff and Jay-Jay Okocha, one which had been nationally shamed and humiliated by a Sky Sports News countdown clock ticking down the seconds to its financial ruin.
Towards the end of the 2-0 victory against Fleetwood Town which guaranteed a top six finish, and a play-off semi-final against Barnsley or Sheffield Wednesday, the stadium erupted in harmonic song – not for one of the players – but for the person sitting in the directors’ box, who had carefully nurtured this fallen giant back to health.
Football rarely allows a moment to pause. Evatt and his team may have achieved their play-off target with a week to spare but the manager’s ingrained ambition has already started to simmer a few hours after the final whistle.
“Me and Sharon said when I arrived at the club that in three years we wanted to be in the Championship,” he said. “That was the target, and we have a chance to achieve that now.
“Anyone who knows me well will know I am a confident person and there is no point being in the play-offs unless you are in there to win it. That is what we will work incredibly hard to do.”
One could argue that winning the Papa Johns Trophy at Wembley at the start of April has already ensured that this season would go down as a success. It was Bolton’s first domestic cup silverware since 1989 and felt like the start of new chapter where fans could once again look forward to the future.
Rightly or wrongly, the public’s expectation for Evatt and Wanderers to push towards promotion is relentless. Bolton have played the vast majority of its football in the top two divisions and memories of the golden Premier League spell under Sam Allardyce are still fresh enough to cause pangs of regret in the heart of those who watched the Whites regularly bloody the nose of the established elite.
Whether some leeway should be given to a business that literally hung in the balance three years ago and only now returning to normality is a matter for future debate.
Football – particularly outside the top flight – is largely reliant on ownership investment and owners Football Ventures’ recent accounts show they funded a £3.37milion loss across the group.
Speaking on behalf of the consortium, Nick Luckock outlined their view for the future.
“I think it is important that we use such a great occasion to reflect on progress and to continually check that we continue to honour the set of guiding principles that we established back in 2019,” he said.
“Our four principles of custodianship, pragmatic progression, togetherness and lastly, honesty and alignment, are really important.
“We recognise that Football Ventures intends to be a positive chapter in the storied history of BWFC. And it is fitting that we are here 100 years and one day since our triumph in the 1923 FA Cup final.
“Within that context, Football Ventures’ simple aims are to ensure that the club and its position in the community is in a better place than when we started. And then, like Ian Evatt and his team, ensure that our ambitions remain high and our desire to constantly improve remains as we progress.
“As custodians we recognise the need to invest, and we continue to do so in all aspects of the group. We have backed Ian’s team with new players, where we constantly aim to improve the playing squad, and we also recognise and reward the performance of our current players as we look forward to next season.
“We have invested heavily in improving facilities with significant progress in our stadium, our pitch, our training ground, hotel and hospitality offerings.
“We have worked closely with our supporters, including the BWFC Supporters’ Trust, and have undertaken a number of initiatives, including our season ticket price freeze. We are thrilled to have received the EFL’s Fan Engagement Award in recognition of the progress made.
“We have ensured that the financial profile of the group has remained strong and are proud to have recently issued, on time, a set of robust financial statements and a clean bill of health.
“We want to thank all the investors, who continue to support the group and are excited to say that we are working hard on a new initiative to enable fans and stakeholders to support the club as we continue to invest and progress, and we’ll say more about this once the regular season has completed.
“All these steps are consistent with our mantra of pragmatic progression and on the pitch we were thrilled to be a part of that glorious April afternoon when we brought home the first silverware in front of 35,000 flag-waving fans at Wembley.
“We are similarly excited to have the opportunity to take part in the play-offs in the coming weeks and we are busily preparing ourselves for whatever league we are playing in next season.
“Our progress has been driven by a spirit of togetherness across all aspects of the club. I do believe we have restored BWFC to the heart of the community and for the guys who don’t agree, my response is simply – Toughsheet.”
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