WANDERERS will “mix it up” next season in a bid to secure Championship football at the fifth time of asking.
Steven Schumacher has pledged to ensure his side will not be predictable in their approach next term, following the same sort of blueprint that brought him promotion success with Plymouth Argyle.
Bolton’s possession football blueprint has not differed wildly over the last four seasons but could not get them over the line in successive play-offs.
Asked to define own style, and what Wanderers fans should expect after a summer of recruitment, Schumacher insists it will be difficult to pin down.
“I want to win,” he said. “You can talk about formations, styles and systems, but you have to win, consistently win.
“You have to mix the game up. The year we won it at Plymouth we played different styles, different formations, went to certain grounds and didn’t play out from the back once, but went to other ones and dominated possession. It didn’t matter, nobody cared, we got the points.”
Schumacher intends to raise the standard in what is expected to be a busy summer transfer window, now backed by a revamped football department which will include sporting director Fergal Harkin, from Standard Liege, and head of recruitment, Jimmy Dickinson, with whom he worked at Plymouth.
Failure to get to the play-offs, admits the head coach, did not come down to effort – and he acknowledges that the squad he inherited from Ian Evatt did everything they could to try and break into the top six.
But this summer’s restructuring will bring in a better balance of options, including a sprinkling of younger players and some with experience of League One promotion.
“The players didn’t want it to end that way, same as the staff,” he said. “And I have said from day one that they have given us their best. I don’t think they have come in here on one day as tossed a training session, haven’t tried.
“But we still haven’t got results and on two, maybe three occasions, we have been below the level but in the 20-ish games I have had, I can handle that.
“They have tried their best but their best just hasn’t been good enough this year. We have to accept it, move on, and do better next year.”
One player who will not be involved with Wanderers next season is Ricardo Santos, who has already been linked with a number of clubs in the Championship as he reviews his options this summer.
The defender is reportedly being tracked by Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City along with other clubs in League One.
Santos played 207 games for Wanderers, scoring six times, and captained the club between October 2021 and September 2024.
Meanwhile, Josh Sheehan has been called up by Wales for a training camp in Spain ahead of this summer’s World Cup qualifiers.
A total of 29 players were called to Cardiff before making their way to Alicante for a four days to prepare for next month’s games against Liechtenstein on June 6 and Belgium on June 9.
The final squad for the international window will be announced on May 28.
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