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Nathan Baxter has let it be known he has not only arrived to be the number one keeper at Wanderers but also the top dog in League One.
In eight seasons spent inching his way up the football ladder, the decision to play at Bolton is the first ‘backwards’ step taken by the former Chelsea stopper, at least in terms of league position.
Though he never made a first team appearance at Stamford Bridge, Baxter has gradually assembled a CV with more than 170 appearances in the National League and EFL, along with glowing recommendations from each manager who signed him.
His last two campaigns at Championship level were cut short by injury but that did not stop a host of clubs at home and abroad from scrambling to secure his services when the 24-year-old became free agent this summer.
Bolton came out on top – and in a week where the club’s ‘due diligence’ in the transfer market has been widely debated, Baxter’s own homework on Ian Evatt’s squad has shown itself to be equally exhaustive.
“It is a very settled team, lots of lads who had a very successful season together last year, so it is not like I am joining a team with 10 new singings,” he told The Bolton News.
“The group of staff have been here a long time too. It is nice to know that this is my home now, a permanent move rather than a loan, which is what my other eight signings have been. It is a really big step for me.
“Every loan I have been on I have climbed a division – this is the first time I have taken a step back.
“I have been quite unfortunate with injuries at Hull City, but in the spells where I was available, I think I was a very good Championship goalkeeper. I have to prioritise being able to stay fit now and I know that if I can do that, I can be one of the best goalies in this league, if not the best.
“If I can be that, then it will give us the best possible chance of promotion. I think the league is wide open and when I weighed up my different options, I targeted this as a settled club with a settled group of lads that I think are ready for promotion.
“That is what we are aiming at now.”
Israeli side Maccabi Haifa, Huddersfield Town and Reading were just three of the clubs reported to have had designs on Baxter but there is no indication that Bolton came out victorious in that transfer battle by being the highest bidder.
“I could have been playing European football, I would have been earning five times the amount I am earning here,” Baxter revealed. “I don’t think there is anyone in League One who would have turned that financial or football opportunity down.
“But I think it shows what I am about as a person and what I believe I can do.
“It is also testament to the size of the club. It has been in the Premier League and I want to play Premier League football. It was always an important step for me signing for a club so I can grow but also that the football club is already of a size to where I want to go.
“You look at a recently promoted team like Sunderland and what they did last season. There is no reason why with this group of players and staff that we can’t go again. That is why I have committed my long-term future to the club.”
One of the advantages of having travelled around the country on loan in the last eight seasons is that Baxter has built up a very healthy network of former team-mates from which to draw opinions. Their assessment of Wanderers under Ian Evatt played a big part in him deciding to shun the riches available elsewhere.
“I spoke to Randell Williams, Dion Charles, Dapo Afolayan – all guys I had played alongside at previous clubs – and every single one of them said ‘huge football club, 20,000 fans every week, brilliant manager, brilliant set of lads’. They are three lads I get on with and trust.
“Footballers are the first people to moan when things are not good. So, when you hear that sort of collective belief and praise for an environment and club then it makes you want to be a part of it.
Baxter made his Football League debut just down the road at Bury, playing his first game for Yeovil as a teenager. His team was reduced to nine men and beaten by a last-minute goal, so it is unsurprising that the fixture is still lodged firmly in his mind.
“I was thinking about that the other day – I roomed with Carl Dickinson at Yeovil, and he has just gone back in at Bury,” he said.
“I had played there the season before for Woking when we won 3-0 in the FA Cup. We were in the Conference and they were League One, Ryan Lowe was caretaker manager at the time.
“It was unfortunate to see what happened there in the end.”
Settling at Bolton should be easier, especially with his first week being spent in a team hotel in Portugal, but Baxter has no worries about putting down roots away from London.
He knows, however, that for all the background stories and statements he can make, the only one that will really matter is out on the pitch.
“Location-wise I know this part of the world from when I was at Accrington and I have got friends either from my time there, or just people who live in and around the North West. It is an area I am comfortable in and I have always found it easy to go into a changing room and make myself part of the team.
“At Yeovil I was made captain when I was 19. I like to think I can cope with that side of things.
“But I always say that first and foremost you have to keep the ball out of the net. You have to save the shots. If you make big saves at big times then people have respect for you and it is a lot easier to be a key figure in the dressing room.
“So, I have to perform, the way I train, the way I prepare for games, I want to lead by example.
“There are some big characters in this dressing room and hopefully I can make the difference between being a play-off team and being a team that is able to get automatic promotion to the Championship.”
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