IAN Evatt has ruled out the possibility of Wanderers dipping into the free agent market before the winter transfer window.

After making two permanent and three loan signings in the summer, the Bolton boss feels he is adequately stocked in most positions for the time being.

Clubs can theoretically still pick up out-of-contract players outside the window but Evatt reckons it will not be an option unless the club experiences some serious injury problems.

“For me, that’s reactive rather than proactive,” he said of the free agent options. “If there are free agents out there, unless we have an absolute catastrophe and players are going down left, right and centre, I don’t see us signing anyone in that market.”

Evatt has had to bring in free agents to boost his squad before – most notably in his first season at Wanderers.

But he believes it would be too big a risk to bring in a player who has not trained regularly at this stage of the campaign.

“I just don’t think it’s us,” he said. “It was slightly different in the past because the first time we did this was on the back of the pandemic and we broke players as soon as we got them in, they were breaking down left, right and centre.

“I was having a chat with Sads (Kieran Sadlier) after training this morning and I said ‘how was that today, was it tough?’ and he said ‘yeah, but it’s always tough’ - and it is.

“It is just the way we train. the way we play. It is intense, hard work, and it is really difficult for players that haven’t been training day in, day out to do that without breaking.

“That is why we are feeling Owen (Beck) in slowly at the moment. We don’t want to break him down.”

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