STEVEN Schumacher has outlined exactly what qualities he will be looking for in the players recruited this summer as he tries to turn Wanderers into promotion contenders again.
The Bolton boss continues to speak individually with the first team squad today and will hold a recruitment meeting with staff tomorrow as he draws a line under what has been a disappointing campaign in League One.
Schumacher has distanced himself from talk about transfer budgets, insisting they are more the domain of incoming sporting director Fergal Harkin, who will take up his role full-time in a couple of weeks at the conclusion of the Belgian season with Standard Liege.
But he remains confident about his ability to attract talent with a different mindset which can complement the existing players who will make up next season’s squad.
Finding the right balance, says Schumacher, will be key to emulating the success he had in a promotion season with Plymouth two years ago.
“You have just got to find the right players and get the right personalities in more than anything,” he told The Bolton News. “You need to get the people who hold themselves to the highest standard every single day, they train properly, they carry out what you have asked them to do on the pitch week in, week out, and they are consistent.
“We found a way to do that at Plymouth a few years ago and I want to find a way to do that here at Bolton as well.”
Schumacher won seven, drew three and lost nine of the 19 games played following his arrival in late January, one of which was in the Vertu Trophy, and Wanderers finished eighth in the table, 10 points off the play-off spots.
He has spoken positively about many of the players he inherited from Steven Schumacher and feels that performances over the last few months - especially in light of the crippling injury problems – have given him cause to be optimistic.
But he also believes the squad is imbalanced and lacks certain characteristics which are needed to compete at the top end of the table.
“You have got to know how to win games,” he said. “You have to know the size of the task and the expectation that this club has and be able to deal with it as well.
“If we can bring in people who have experience of promotions, then brilliant, and also if we can bring in some people who have that youth, that energy and enthusiasm, so they play with confidence regardless of what’s going on, then that will help us as well.
“Being able to attract players to a club of this size shouldn’t be a problem. But, again, they have to be the right types who are going to be able to handle what it takes to play here.
“Winning a promotion, no matter what division it’s in, isn’t easy because you need a winning mentality.
“You look at Sarce (Antoni Sarcevic) and he’s just got a sixth one with Bradford City. It’s a different division, that’s fine, OK, but you still need to have what it takes to drive standards and demand that everyone around you is doing the same. I think that is something we’re probably missing here as well.
“It is probably a driving force, digging each other out, pushing each other every single day and not letting standards drop. That’s the key to going up.”
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