Bringing Bolton Back

So it's official….I'm the new boss at Bolton Wanderers Football Club and the plan is to get them back to the heights of the English Premier League. But that is just the first goal - from there I want to add trophies to the cabinet and cement the club as one of the top teams in the country, bringing some memorable European nights to The Toughsheet Community Stadium for the Trotters fans that have been put through their fair amount of turmoil over the recent years.

The club were at their peak in the early 2000s, playing in the top tier of English football from 2001 through to 2012, recording some impressive top 8 finishes for four seasons in a row from 2003. It was a period that even saw Bolton qualify for the UEFA cup for the first time in their history, where they managed to reach the last 32 before being eliminated by Marseille.

During that period, the team included some seriously talented players including Fernando Hierro, Ivan Campo, Kevin Nolan and Jay Jay Okocha.

Sam Allardyce was the manager that guided them through this successful spell, but he left the club at the end of the 2006/07 season, citing a lack of ambition from the club as his reason for leaving (after he later joined Newcastle). It was the start of the demise for the North West side, as they found themselves as a bottom half side, battling relegation for the next few years, before finally facing the drop in the 2011/12 season after finishing 18th in the table. 

There would be no immediate return to the top tier and instead spent six seasons across the Championship and League One which included 1 relegation and promotion. Things went from bad to worse as Bolton then suffered back to back relegations in 2019 and 2020, alongside a financial crisis that saw The Trotters go into administration.

New owners came in and Wanderers immediately bounced back to the 3rd tier after finishing 3rd in League Two during the 2020/21 season. Fans were optimistic that this was the start of their beloved side climbing back up the leagues, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. Instead, Bolton have now spent 4 straight seasons stuck in League One and just can't seem to get over the line to get themselves back into the Championship…..Enter Chris Ball for a new era!

Good start here.

Remember “studying” in Bolton in the early to mid nineties, and spending my Saturday afternoons down at the old Burnden Park which had the Normid Superstore next to the away terracing.

Be interesting to see how this career pans out.

I grew up with Bolton in the PL, proper Barclays as they say; I'd be happy to see them return. Best of luck with the save!

I do feel that they are the most “Barclays” of “Barclays” clubs and players, whenever I see these conversations. 

Look forward to seeing this happen, excited to see who becomes the Ivan Campo @TNSSO 

July 2025
Settling In

My new home is one that has changed it's name several times over the past few years, from the Reebok to the Macron and as it is now, the Toughsheet Stadium after the club signed a record breaking sponsorship deal with the building products manufacturer in 2023. It's one of the more impressive stadiums down at League One level with a capacity of more than 28,000!

We have the foundations firmly in place to rebuild this club back to a Premier League outfit, with solid training and youth development facilities and I'll be looking to bring some talented youngsters through the Eddie Davies Academy throughout my time at the club. After all, the fans love nothing more than one of their own!

The board are on the same wavelength as me too, as they also want me to focus on utilising the academy. They also want me to operate shrewdly in the transfer market, selling players for a profit and breaking even year on year...I suppose it makes sense they would want us to be sensible on the financial front after the administration a few years back.

In terms of my targets for this season, it's all about getting that promotion and reaching the playoffs is the minimum they will expect from our League One campaign. Just being competitive in the cups will suffice with no major expectations for a cup run...it's all about the league this year!

Financially, the club looks OK at the moment with more than £3 million in the bank and working within our wage budget too. There is a little debt tied to the club, but nothing too huge to be worried about and it must be manageable as the board have given me £350k to spend in the transfer market this season, although based on their vision they will be looking for me to bring in as much as I spend, so I'll need to be cautious.

I did, however, make the decision to reduce the domestic cup bonuses for the squad this season down to low. The board are clearly not prioritising a cup run and I don't believe we should be either. The league is the priority and this decision gave us the opportunity to put another £250k in the transfer kitty for the season ahead.

We managed to fit in 4 friendlies before the season kicks off. It started with an underwhelming draw against Chorley, although the scoreline doesn't tell the whole story. We were 2-0 up and dominating until a sending off saw us reduced to 10 men and Chorley worked hard to get themselves back level. We then recorded two big wins against lesser opposition, before our most impressive result earning a draw against a much better side in Monaco. Not only did we hold our own against the Ligue 1 side, we were the better team creating 26 chances in the match and probably deserved to win.

Pre-season did give me a good chance to have a look at all those players in my squad that are not currently injured. It is clear already that on loan striker (from Middlesbrough), Marcus Forss will be key to our success this year. He is by far the best striker we have at the club and his goals could be the different between us making the playoffs or not.

Another player that will need to perform is centre back George Johnston. At the heart of my defence, he is the main man and the 26 year old will need to organise our back line week in, week out, if we are going to defend our goal effectively. Recording an average rating over the first 3 games of pre-season of 7.48, he has really impressed me thus far. Not only that, he is my vice captain so I need to work hard to keep him on side.

And that started by giving him a new 4 year deal at the club.

Taking a look at the whole squad, we have some minor gaps to plug, but overall I am happy going into the season. We are strong enough to challenge, if we can get things right tactically and keep the morale up. Oh, and obviously keep our better players at the club, which might not necessarily be easy as we do have some clubs sniffing around the likes of Eoin Toal, Chris Forino and George Johnston (until I tied him down to a new deal).

Always had a soft spot for the Wanderers ever since visiting the Reebok Arena on a school trip for some reason. 

Anyway, best of luck getting them back to the promised land, I'm along for the ride!

August 2025
First Season Underway

Our first game of the season will see us go away to Reading. They're predicted to finish in the top half of the table this year, with the bookies having them at 15/1 to win the title, so they will provide a stern test. All eyes will be on me, from the perspective of the Bolton faithful, who are expecting a draw from the game at least. Here's where the pressure begins.

And after a relatively short pre season with my players, here's the tactic we'll be lining up with for the first game in League One. It's focused on a balanced style of play, building through the lines with a narrow style, but with some wide men who can cut inside and make an impact. Playing with a DM allows additional cover for the defence whilst giving the two more advanced central midfielders to get forward and indluence our attacking play. The idea is to play a relatively fluid, short passing game in order to keep possession and dominate games, as we will likely be the favourites for a lot of our matches this year. In defence, we will fall back into more of a flat 4-1-4-1, with the idea to remain a solid unit that are tough to break down.

League One
Matchday 1 - Reading (Away)

Well it's fair to say that was the worst possible start to the season. Things were going well through the first 45 minutes as we carried a 1-0 lead into the break, through Josh Randall's strike from just inside the box. However, a second half meltdown saw us concede 4 times and we kick off our season with a defeat that I can only hope won't be too damaging. Not the way I wanted to introduce myself to the Bolton fans.

The draw for the EFL Trophy is made and we will play Manchester City's youngsters, Oldham and Rotherham. It's a competition I plan to put very limited effort into, unless we reach the latter stages and then try to win it. But this is a competition the fans care very little about and one that will likely be used to rotate and squad and give minutes to some fringe players.

Injury; Unfortunately, we get some bad news as our goalscorer from the opening game of the season will now miss about 3 months of action after tearing his hamstring in training.

League One
Matchday 2 - Blackpool (Home)

Tactical changes (from last game); Changed attacking focus to down both flanks. Added stop crosses to combat Blackpool's threat from wide areas. Added press much more often as some of their players have low composure on the ball. Changed to positive mentality.

Much, much better result as we win our first home game of the season. Blackpool looked lively in the opening 10 minutes, but once we had settled down, we went on to dominate most periods of the game. Captain, Eoin Toal gave us the lead with a headed effort from a corner, before Marcus Forss bagged a brace to kill off the game.

EFL Cup
First Round - Mansfield Town (Home)

Tactical changes (from last game); Switched back to balanced mentality.

What a turnaround that was in injury time. 1-0 down going into the 90th minute and we ended up winning and progress in the cup! With about 10 minutes remaining, we went for it as I sacrificed a DM for an AM and we changed to ultra attacking with a much more direct style of play as we looked to get back in the game. Xavier Simons got us back on level terms with a great strike from just outside the box, before McAtee pounced on a rebound to score the winner just a minute later.

League One
Matchday 3 - Rotherham United (Away)

Tactical changes (from last game); Changed to mid block.

We grab our first away win of the season at Rotherham, but only by a narrow margin against a side that had drawn their opening 2 games. Right back, Jordi Osei-Tutu was the creative genius of the day as he set up both our goals with his overlapping runs and crosses into the box wreaking havoc.

League One
Matchday 4 - Port Vale (Home)

Tactical changes (from last game); Switched back to positive mentality. Added invite crosses as Port Vale don't offer much from wide areas.

This was a game where we only have ourselves to blame for losing. We simply didn't take our chances and Vale caught us a couple of times on the break scoring twice against the run of play. Poor result at home this one!

EFL Cup
Round 2 - Sheffield Wednesday (Home)

Tactical changes (from last game);Reverted back to balanced mentality. Added hit early crosses as I feel we have missed lots of opportunities to get the ball in the box over the last few games. Changed to a low block.

Well I did take the opportunity here to rotate the squad and was happy to concede that we would likely go out of the competition to higher league opposition. However, the manner of the defeat is gutting and I didn't expect to have our arses handed to us.

League One
Matchday 5 - Burton Albion (Away)

Tactical changes (from last game); Totally new 4-2-3-1 formation and tactics with new team instructions.

The new tactic brought about a good performance away at Burton and a big 3 points that were much needed to end the month.

And here is it. This took me a good hour of solid work, going through every position and every single player has their own individual instructions as well. Hopefully the Burton result is a sign of things to come.

Without being spectacular in the first month of the season, we do still retain a spot in the top 7 in the table, so it's not all doom and gloom. Hopefully, we can push on from here to get ourselves in contention closer to the top of the table over the next few games.

Player of the Month

Amario Cozier-Duberry has looked our main threat going forward in every game and 3 goals and 3 assists in his opening 7 games of the season proves he is the man to fear for our opposition.

Decent league recovery after that opening day humbling, shame they seem to have underestimated Vale.

Chastening loss in the Carabao too, but I would to think that getting back into the second tier is the bigger priority.