IAN Evatt has confirmed he will be clearing space in his squad for new signings this summer.

The Wanderers boss has warned fringe players that being under contract will not guarantee them a place in his squad quota when League One gets up and running again in August.

Evatt wants at least five more players – a goalkeeper, a left-back, a centre-half, and at least two attacking players – through the door at the UniBol.

And in order to do so, fringe players like Reiss Greenidge, Ali Crawford and Brandon Comley could be cleared to make space.

“That’s just the nature of the beast,” Evatt told The Bolton News. “I have said that all along. I have said that to the players throughout the season, when things weren’t going well.

“Just because you have signed a two or three-year contract, you are not protected by that.

“There are going to be movers and shakers, there always is at football clubs and when we are signing players, we have to unfortunately exit some, and there will be some exits going out this summer.”

Evatt has revealed which positions he is looking to strengthen in the coming weeks, and ideally wants the majority of his new signings ready to start the pre-season schedule in early July.

“I know exactly what I need in the building and I know exactly what positions,” he said.

“I’m not going to share who with you but fundamentally we’re covered in central midfield. We definitely need a left-back or two. I think we’re okay at right-back, but if another one becomes available we’ll look to bring probably one more in there. Maybe a goalkeeper for sure. A centre-back, another one for sure and then the forward positions are really where we need to strengthen, wide and giving Eoin (Doyle) some competition through the middle.”

Evatt is mindful that his team cannot suffer from the same slow start as they did last season, which he feels cost them a chance of winning the League Two title.

“I am biased, but I genuinely believe we were the best team in the league,” he maintains. “I’m most disappointed that we didn’t win the league but we gave ourselves too much to do.

“The main focus was promotion, we managed to achieve that, but giving the league a 20-game head start, it wasn’t quite there for us to be able to win the league.

“We lost all our chances because we’d lost two or three games that we probably shouldn’t have lost as well in the run-in, we missed out on winning the league by three points.

“I felt like we were the best team but we have to go and prove that again next season.”