JOEL Randall has been bombed out at Wanderers just one year after they spent £1.2million to sign him from Peterborough United.
The 26-year-old attacking midfielder has joined Blackpool on loan for the rest of the season, linking up again with Ian Evatt who last January had made him his last permanent addition at the Toughsheet Stadium.
Randall became the most expensive capture of the Football Ventures era on January 9, 2025, when Evatt ended a six-month chase for the former Exeter City man and paying considerably less than the near £2m being demanded by Posh the previous summer.
But Randall never looked settled at Bolton and though he scored 12 days after his arrival in Evatt’s last game in charge against Charlton Athletic, he has rarely looked like the answer to the club’s problems in the number 10 position.
After signing a three-and-a-half year contract, he has made 21 starts, 18 sub appearances, and scored just two goals and provided three assists.
Speaking before the announcement, Steven Schumacher said he felt he had offered Randall enough opportunities to prove his worth.
“We have got a big squad, loads of numbers, but especially in that area,” he told The Bolton News.
“I feel as though I have given everyone an opportunity to play and at the moment I am making decisions based on those who I think are the best ones ready in the squad.
“I think Kyle Dempsey has always looked a goal threat and John McAtee came on an did well at the weekend, so at the moment Joel has found himself out of the squad.”
Blackpool are understood to have paid a loan fee for Randall, with Wanderers open to a permanent deal in the summer if he impresses at Bloomfield Road.
After moving to the Worsley area in the summer, it was hoped that the playmaker could settle and become a regular under Schumacher.
He has collected just 33 per cent of the available game minutes, however, making nine starts, and though the Bolton boss has regularly backed him amid criticism from the terraces, he has become the sixth player to leave in the January window.
What happens beyond the summer is unclear – but it has become increasingly evident in recent weeks with Randall excluded from the squad that the club were looking to move him on, backing Dempsey and McAtee in the number 10 role and ideally adding another signing in that position before the close of the month.
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