In Evatt We Rust

Back in the depths of our League 2 horror start to the season, after we had just conceded our second goal away at Barrow after 4 minutes, I received a text from my father who was watching the game (as we all had to) from home. I was at University at the time, sat in front of my laptop having paid my £10 to view the game, seething at the performance, the wasted money and the fact that bloody Chris Taylor had scored against us (something he had never even threatened to do whilst on our books).

The text read “if he had anything about him, Evatt would resign at half time”. It was a knee-jerk response, something I was used to from Dad and I dismissed it at the time. It was a brand new team and manager who I hoped would find their feet.

By the 23rd of January 2021, after a loss to one of my least favourite teams in Tranmere Rovers, I finally started to agree with him. I wrote an article (which may well still be available to view somewhere online) outlining the reasons why Ian Evatt should be sacked. The reasons seemed fair to me, we were Bolton Wanderers and sat 17th in League 2, it was unacceptable. We all know what happened next.

After 6 wins in a row, I wrote a retraction. After a further 6 unbeaten games including 4 more wins, I began to feel foolish. Though we tried to mess it up, Wanderers were promoted in 3rd at the end of the season and the patience for which Evatt and his supporters had pleaded had been vindicated. The first year of the 3 Year Plan had, in the end, been successful.

We currently sit in Year 5 of said plan, and frankly I am back to where I was on the 23rd of January 2021. In 2024, despite reaching a Play-Off Final, it has been very, very hard to watch my team. As I write this, having seen Bolton thoroughly outplayed by Birmingham City (£30m spent or not the performance was weak and spineless again), I cannot fathom why Ian Evatt appears to have the safest job in football despite consistently unaddressed failings.

Bolton are the worst team in the league at defending set-pieces, an issue that has been persistent since League 2. Bolton consistently lose players to training ground injuries, an issue that has been persistent since the middle of our first season back in League 1. Bolton have a shocking record against the better sides in our division, an issue that has been a hallmark of Evatt’s tenure. As a great man once said, “the definition of madness is attempting the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

Perusing Twitter is draining nowadays as a Bolon fan. If it didn’t turn after the Wembley debacle vs Oxford, fan opinion fully turned after the 4-0 capitulation at home against Huddersfield. One particular post caught my eye after the Birmingham game regarding Jay Matete, a serial promotion winner at this level who looks set to lose his 3-year streak and another who appears bereft of confidence. The post outlined that Matete clearly has quality, but “something is sucking the confidence from our team”. He went on to say “The only exception to this recently has been Maghoma”. I hadn’t considered it before, but Ian Massey you’re absolutely right.

Paris dragged this team kicking and screaming to Wembley. In hindsight, it remains one of the best half-seasons of football I have seen since maybe Lukas Jutkiewicz or Craig Dawson. Sadly, while this side has quality, we do not have a player with the ability to carry 10 of his teammates on his back towards something like where the club should be.

Aaron Collins, John McAtee, Dion Charles, Ricardo Santos, Josh Sheehan and the aforementioned Matete are players at this level whose pedigree is rubber stamped. Ask 80% of teams in the league (maybe all except Birmingham if we are pushing it) if they wanted one of those players they would say “Yes”. Sadly, they look drained and demotivated and this comes from the top.

I said at the time when it was revealed that Evatt had shares in the club that such a power dynamic was a mistake. However difficult his contract would be to unravel, the message it sends is that he has carte blanche to fail and remain gainfully employed. I’m sorry, but there is a real malaise setting in at Bolton and, as anyone who was there in 2015/16 or 2018/19 will recall, the Reebok can be truly miserable in times of trouble. When the team is doing well, it’s a cauldron of noise. Currently, it is anything but.

Ian Evatt can clearly coach, but his ego prevents him from learning from mistakes. This team needs a fresh start, before the 3 Year plan enters Year 6 with Bolton still in League 1.