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Since Victor Adeboyejo sunk Fleetwood with a hat-trick in August the Wanderers striker has added just two more goals to his tally.
While Dion Charles’s scoring rate is the quickest of any Bolton front man since the great John McGinlay, his regular strike partner has found it tougher to gain the same sort of adulation, at least with his goal return.
Signed for a reported £500,000 from Burton Albion last January, Adeboyejo was the club’s most expensive recruit since they shelled out £1million for Jay Spearing from Liverpool a decade ago.
And while the 25-year-old may have some work on his hands to satisfy the demanding Wanderers fans, the man who signed him insists he got a good price.
“I’d pay more, knowing what I know now,” he said, “I’d pay more for him.
“We are happy with Victor, we think we get a lot of value for what we paid. Dion is the same and you can go right the way through our squad – I can give you price tags if you want, but I can something for nothing, they are worth a lot more now.”
Evatt has paid transfer fees for nine of his current first team squad and is confident he has managed to increase their book value.
The transfer window reopens on Monday, and though the Bolton boss remains “quietly confident” he can keep his squad together as they chase a place in the Championship next season, he recognises there is a bigger economy at play.
“People seem happy to talk about our squad, which is nice, and there aren’t many players we have signed from above,” he said. “We have bought most of these players from a lower ebb, coached and worked with them, improved them, and now our squad is the envy of the league.
“That isn’t because we have bought our way out. It is because we saw potential and recruitment is good, we feel like we are in a good place.
“My job and Chris (Markham)’s is that we find assets for this club, coach and develop them, make them work in our system and team. Hopefully that increases their value.
“We are not a selling club by any stretch but trading is a key part in football. I have used more than 100 players in my time as manager, so it shows you the turnaround.
“Everyone has a price and if someone bids the right price, which would be significant, then we would do our best to replace them with the next one – that’s the way we have to be until we get to where we want.”
Adeboyejo may have scored just once in his last 15 appearances for Bolton but Evatt believes his worth to the team has more nuance.
“We want Victor to score, of course we do, but there are so many more parts to his game,” he said.
“He attracts people around him, he holds the ball up well, and against Lincoln I thought he had one of his best games in a good few weeks. He looked back to his best and razor sharp again.
“He has been carrying one or two niggles and sometimes you have to spread that pressure around, and Jon (Dadi Bodvarsson) has stepped in and done great.
“I have no issue with Victor, I know he will score goals and I know what a good partner he is for the rest of the centre-forwards.”
Evatt was complimentary about the input of both his strikers in the victory at Lincoln on Tuesday, even though it was a night where plenty of chances went astray.
“A confident centre-forward is a dangerous one,” he said. “Dion in particular is one who I don’t think worries about missing chances, he just concentrates on the next one. You need to be able to do that.
“If Dion scored with every opportunity he got, he wouldn’t be playing for us, simple as that.
“He will miss them but the great thing for us is that he is there to miss them. And we back him to score more than he misses. He has proven us right so far.
“I don’t think any of our forward feel like they ‘need’ a goal, I think the focus is on that general performance and then when the chances come, they try to take one. They get them in this team as well.
“None of that happens unless the team is functioning, and the strikers are a key part of that. There are goals all over the pitch.
“First off focus on playing well, then chances will come for the strikers and for others.”
The Bolton boss also said the work-rate which is required from his strikers mean they cannot be judged solely on their goal return.
“It is genuinely huge for the way we play, it enables us to function," he said. "Sometimes when you play with two strikers it means you are giving up something else – so we need them to be at it, running channels, being a handful, connect and combine the play, press out of possession, and it is a very difficult job playing centre-forward in our team, no doubt about it."
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