WANDERERS hope to clinch one new signing today for the trip to Carlisle United – and have designs on up to THREE more before deadline day.

Ian Evatt confirmed yesterday that there had been progress on a number of fronts as he looks to bolster his squad before the window closes next Thursday night.

Randell Williams has become the latest Bolton player struck down by injury – the wing-back sustaining a hamstring tear which keeps him out for two months.

There was better news on Cumbrian native Kyle Dempsey, however, with the midfielder fit enough to feature in the squad heading for Brunton Park.

Evatt is known to want at least one new defender and a striker and talked confidently at his press conference yesterday about getting one loan deal over the line before lunchtime, enabling to player to travel to Carlisle.

But he admits that striking the right price for some of his targets has been a tricky thing to do.

“We try to be straight and fair,” he told The Bolton News. “When we value someone, we are not playing games. We are not trying to low-ball anyone and then come in at the 11th hour of the transfer window and make your life a bit of a misery.

“We have to say: ‘We see it as this, is it feasible or not?’ “There is always some degree of manoeuvrability or tweaks you can make but fundamentally the price is the price for us, and then it is down to parent club to decide if that is what they want. If it is a yes, fantastic, if it is a no then we’ll walk away.

“We have always tried to be strategic with our recruitment and that will continue.”

Asked if he had deviated from the shortlist of players he assembled before the January window the Bolton boss added: “No, we have had a clear idea of what we want and what that looks like.

“I think we are in a strong, solid position to make that happen.”

Off the field there have been developments within the company structure which could impact on Evatt’s future recruitment plans.

Owners, Football Ventures (Whites) Ltd, have issued shares to an Essex-based sports data advisory firm called Ludonautics, who are owned by Ian Graham, a former director of research at Liverpool.

Alongside Michael Edwards, who is a non-executive director of the company, Graham assembled a revolutionary data room at Liverpool which many feel was central to the club’s success under Jurgen Klopp.

Wanderers hope to use the partnership to further their own cause and Evatt underlined that his own analysis team, headed by the highly-rated Chris Markham, stand to benefit.

“I know exactly what that looks like because Sharon and the board have kept us updated all along,” he said. “The message is that we are a progressive football club. We are looking to improve.

“This is not replacing anything that we are doing, it is to be additive. I think it is really exciting.”