“It is not about any other job, I am not interested in any other job, I am interested in getting this place to where it belongs. It is my sole focus and always will be.”

Without doubting the sincerity of Ian Evatt’s words as he spoke passionately about completing the improbable challenge of guiding Wanderers back into the Premier League, football often has a habit of scuppering those good intentions.

Bolton fans of a certain vintage will remember Bruce Rioch’s statements of affirmation as he guided his team into the top-flight in the early nineties before getting an offer he simply could not refuse at Arsenal, albeit one he now regrets accepting.

What really matters, or at least what should matter to the folk who have stood by this club through its darkest hours is that they are now being led by a man who is in truly in demand, even as he signs a new three-year deal.

The hotseat at Wanderers has been occupied by a procession of firefighters in the 16 years since Sam Allardyce quit in such controversial circumstances with the club on the verge of their second European campaign.

Appreciate the irony, then, that Big Sam starts his impermanent role at Leeds United on the same weekend that Evatt begins a new chapter, looking to become the first manager ever to lead the club in three different divisions.

Almost three years ago the football world was an uncertain one. Evatt had guided Barrow back into the Football League for the first time since the early seventies, albeit in a season truncated by the pandemic.

Football Ventures had not succeeded with their first managerial choice, Keith Hill, or the squad they had assembled in such haste post-takeover. Relegation had been a formality from January onward and five locked-down months later there was only a small number of young contracted professional players being carried through to the following season.

It was announced on June 12 that Hill would leave the post, although he had been left withering on the vine for some time by that stage, with Operation Restart only set to begin at Premier League level a week later.

Bolton’s owners had entrusted the manager search to their head of football operations, Tobias Phoenix, and had also investigated Nathan Jones as a possible contender before pushing on with their pursuit of former Blackpool and QPR defender Evatt.

Evatt recalls his first meeting with chairman, Sharon Brittan, and how the opportunity to manage a club he knew well was too good to turn down.

“The next move from Barrow was always going to be a pivotal one for my career and how I envisioned it to go,” he told The Bolton News. “I have never wanted to be one of those managers who hops about from job to job, I wanted to find a club where I could get on a journey with them.

“Honestly, Bolton was almost too good to be true. That a club with its size and history would find itself in League Two and want me, I mean, I had played against them in the Premier League not that long ago. It was unbelievable for me to have the opportunity, it was a huge honour.

“Yes, it was a basket case. But I vividly remember the first conversation I had with Sharon, it was about half an hour long, and from that moment on there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that this was the place I wanted to be, this is the journey I wanted to go on, and she was the owner I wanted to work for.

“We have had difficult moments and I think that first three or four months was as tough a period as I have had in my whole life, let alone just football, but there were reasons behind it. And since then we have been on an upward curve and it has been fantastic.”

The man who tried in vain to keep Wanderers a steady ship in the middle of a financial storm, Phil Parkinson, had turned down Football Ventures’ offer of staying on as manager back when they finally wrestled control at the end of August 2019.

Despite his decision, the embattled Parky – now a bona fide Hollywood superstar thanks to his role at Wrexham – confided in this writer that he trusted the future of the club in the new owners’ hands.

Without betraying any confidences, his belief was that incoming chairman Sharon Brittan was exactly the type of nurturing presence that a club ravaged by administration needed.

“The club needs a big hug,” he told me. “She is exactly the person to do that.”

Though Hill’s departure hinted at a clinical, ruthless edge to Bolton’s owners, or at the very least a sense of what was best for business, Evatt believes Parkinson’s assessment has proved completely correct in his time at the helm.

“Any business or football club should replicate what their leaders stand for, and with Sharon, I think Bolton Wanderers are becoming that and it is great credit to her. She was absolutely the perfect person to take this club on,” he said.

“It isn’t just about finance. It is about the personal touch she has, not just with me, the staff or the players, but with people she meets in the town and in the community. The connection we have built is fantastic.

“It is down to her and the rest of the investors like Nick Luckock, Michael James and so on, they are all of equal class to her and stand for the same sort of things.

“We know what this club is capable of doing and the journey continues for us all.”

Wanderers battled against EFL-mandated salary caps, which made the task of rebuilding an entire squad all the more difficult, alongside the internal ills that were building in the first few months of the 2020/21 campaign.

Evatt and Phoenix’s relationship broke down and by December the latter had also been cut free, his effective replacement, ex-Huddersfield Town and England National Team analyst Chris Markham, brought in to undertake a huge rebuild of the recruitment department.

Since then, there has been a steady improvement. Promotion from League Two, a ninth-placed finish in the club’s return to League One, and this season’s play-off chase alongside a win at Wembley in the Papa Johns Trophy.

Wanderers have started to invest cash sums in players once again – Dion Charles, Victor Adeboyejo, Aaron Morley, Kyle Dempsey – but have kept their spending at a relatively conservative level compared to some clubs at this level.

That has inevitably led to come concern over that would happen if Bolton were promoted. Would Football Ventures have the financial wherewithal to be competitive?

Evatt says it was a factor in his discussions about a new deal.

“We have talked about the future and I have a huge amount of trust in them as they do in me, we know where we want to go and how we want to do it,” he said.

“It is not necessarily about flashing cash and spending huge money, putting this club at risk. We want to do it smartly, strategically, and differently to how others have done it.

“That’s the vision and hopefully it comes true. As I said, it was really important for me to say – regardless of circumstance – this is where I want to be. Likewise, the club want me here, which is fantastic.

“I really do feel like we have only just begun to scratch the surface. I am really excited about getting this club back where it belongs, and I believe it belongs in the Premier League.

“I have believed since the minute I walked through the door that I am the man to take them there. We are on our way… But there is still a long way to go.”