This is a story about a manager, a team, a humbled fan base after the team lost the play-off final, and a club fighting to hold onto the positivism it has felt in previous years.
For Bolton Wanderers, who are thinking about spending a fourth straight season at this level of football for just the third time in their history, these are intriguing times indeed.
The only extended dry spell outside the top two divisions occurred between the cash-strapped early eighties and the revival years under Phil Neal and Bruce Rioch in the early nineties, and was interspersed by a single season in the former Division Four’s basement. This was despite a brief dip that Jimmy Armfield helped to salvage in the early seventies.
If football is a cycle, then we are currently halfway between the last two Burnden Park custodians: one is remembered for having tried and failed to get promoted, while the other took those strong foundations and transformed the club in just three short years to play Premier League football.
Ian Evatt will not want to be remembered as a supporting player, similar to Neal, who put in all the hard work but received little recognition for it. After two failed attempts to make the playoffs, the upcoming season looks to be his opportunity to escape the constant comparisons.
Wanderers have been in the top two divisions in England for 85% of their existence, which has, more than anything else, added to the overall sense of dislocation in the Football League’s lower half.
Of course, dubious ownership and financial concerns hastened the club’s most recent decline in popularity. It’s highly likely that Bolton would have ended up like their neighbours Bury and had to start over from scratch if Football Ventures hadn’t intervened to save it from the brink five years ago. The debt Wanderers owe on that front has always been acknowledged by their supporters.
In the midst of a pandemic, Evatt and Co. had to start from scratch—an unenviable feat—but after four years, 92 players, 226 games, 115 wins, and one promotion, we have achieved a convergence of expectations and accomplishments. Some could even contend that, with the resources at their disposal, Bolton has surpassed the threshold of underachievement.
It was a devastating blow to one’s ego to lose, first to Oxford United in the final and then to automatic promotion. During the campaign, Evatt and a few of his players were reported to have thought that Bolton was the “best team in the league.” The rest of the football community took notice, as anyone who has ventured onto social media in the past two weeks can attest.
But those were no meaningless words. The manager and his staff have a strong sense of confidence—bordering on arrogance—and a sincere conviction that they are the finest in the business. Evatt’s unwavering trust in his players and his philosophy of football persisted until the last seconds of the 99-minute match at Wembley.
In certain situations, that loyalty might have cost something. In the silent two weeks that have followed, his final remarks in the capital about pondering change have been taken in a variety of ways, but the extent to which he rejuvenates the team might now be the most significant choice of his tenure as manager.
