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Ian Evatt believes this could be the perfect year for Wanderers to mount an automatic promotion challenge.
Installed by the bookmakers as second favourites behind Derby County to win League One this season, Bolton have made no secret of their desire to return to the Championship for the first time since 2018/19.
Whereas last season Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday boasted significantly bigger playing budgets than the rest of the clubs challenging at the top end of the division, there appears a more level playing field this time around.
The likes of Barnsley, Peterborough United, Portsmouth, Blackpool, Reading, Charlton, Oxford and Wycombe are all fancied for a shot at promotion while Wigan, shackled by an eight-point deduction, could well make up ground.
But a confident Evatt reckons his team – itself boosted by extra funds for transfers this summer – can take advantage of the fact they are battling against similar spending power, provided his players can do themselves justice.
“I am firmly of the opinion that leagues go in cycles,” he told The Bolton News.
“If you look at the Championship last season, for example, I think that was a weak year for that division. And that is no disrespect to any teams that were there – but if you look at the top two and the distance they put between themselves and the others, I think it was fundamentally quite a weak year.
“If you look at it this time around, with the three relegated from the Premier League, then the ones promoted from our division – Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday are really big clubs with big financial power – it will be a really tough one this year.
“League One does look slightly weaker in the cycle of divisions. League Two looks a bit stronger, National League looks slightly weaker. It has a cycle which goes around every year, divisions get stronger and weaker depending on the clubs and the resources they have that get promoted and relegated.
“I personally think this could be a good year in League One to be competing at the top end.
“But there are no guarantees and we have to go out there, do it, earn it. We are excited by it, very much looking forward to it.”
After finishing fifth last season with 81 points, Wanderers know they must improve their points return if they are to trouble the top two.
Since 1995/96, the average number of points required to win League One has been 93.6, whereas the average for automatic promotion is 87.3. In both cases the points tally for the Covid-affected 2019/20 campaign was discounted.
Being expected to lead from the very front brings about different pressures to last season, when a play-off spot was very much the target for Evatt’s men. But he is confident his players will handle the added expectation.
“It is a privilege to have that target on our back,” he said. “It hasn’t always been the case.
“I think we are a well-respected football club again, on and off the pitch.
“We have to embrace the pressure of winning. That means home and away every week.
“The players know what is expected and so do I. We have to deliver.”
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