Wanderers have already submitted their first bid of the transfer window – and it hasn’t even opened yet!

Ian Evatt has confirmed that an offer has gone in for one of a few targets he plans to bring to the University of Bolton Stadium next month.

It is known that the Whites boss wants to add another striker to his squad, but he has strongly played down reports linking him with Huddersfield Town’s Danny Ward.

Evatt expects to hear back soon on the mystery man – and feels he can get all his transfer business done in the first couple of weeks of the window.

“We have started quickly and had active conversations,” he told The Bolton News. “We have targeted the players we want, had meetings and we have now had an offer go in for a player, so things are progressing really well.

“Nothing is finalised yet and it hasn’t been agreed but we have been very proactive and we would like to think that early January most of our business will be done.

“There will be exits too, there is no denying that. But I think it will be a very active early January and then we will hopefully see the fruits of that for the rest of the season.”

On experienced striker Ward – who started his professional career with Bolton in the Premier League days – Evatt said there was nothing to report.

“At the moment there isn’t anything in that one,” he said. “I don’t want to speak about other people’s players, he is one we are aware of, and we know he’s been here before and a very talented player. But there is nothing to speak of anyway.”

Wanderers brought in several players last January to help them finish the season strongly and are hoping to do something similar with an injection of new blood next month.

Evatt says his targets have been established for some time, the result of months of work from the club’s recruitment analysis department. As such, he says it is unlikely that Wanderers will left waiting to deadline day to do business.

“We are not really ones to make last-minute signings, a lot of our work is done prior to the upcoming window,” he said. “As soon as this one closes we will be on to the summer and we know what we are doing, who we are targeting.

“The work Chris Markham and the recruitment analysts have done behind the scenes to formulate the reports has been excellent. It is a long and tough process but we feel like we are in a really good place and strategically we feel we have chosen the right ones.”

Wanderers face Derby County tomorrow at the UniBol with more than 23,000 tickets already sold.

Evatt hopes there will be a late push towards maximum capacity for the televised game.

“I haven’t seen a sell-out here but I hear all the time about the atmosphere of the Premier League days and it would be great for that last couple of thousand of seats to be filled,” he added.