JORDI Osei-Tutu feels this season could already be described as the best of his professional career, but he still hopes to push it to further highs in the play-offs.
Ninety minutes separates Wanderers and Wembley, and Thursday night’s second leg at Valley Parade promises to be the 30th league start of the full-back’s season so far.
That total comfortably beats his previous best for a single campaign, set whilst playing for German side VfL Bochum on loan from Arsenal in 2019/20.
After that season, which saw him start 21 league games, injury issues and a succession of loans created the illusion of a nomadic existence for the former Gunner. But once he took the decision to join Wanderers in the summer of 2024, turning down offers from the Championship, his durability and consistency has improved year upon year.
Wanderers’ target has always been to return to the Championship for the first time since 2019 and they took a step closer with Saturday’s win against Bradford in the first leg.
Play off football is a new experience for Osei-Tutu and he is excited by the prospect of advancing to the final with another positive result.
“I think everyone’s excited for it because we know what the end goal is,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of opportunities not to make it so hard for ourselves, but at the end of the day we’ve made the play-offs, so hopefully we take it a step further and win it.
“At the start of the season the main objective was to get promoted, whether that’s automatic promotion or through the play-offs.
“Obviously, we missed out on the auto spot and we’ve had our highs and lows.
“But I think the season has been good and, ultimately, I think we’ll go on to do it.
“I think the season’s still on a high and obviously we can finish it off on a massive high by getting promoted.”
It hasn’t all been sweetness and light for Osei-Tutu this season. He received the first red card of his career in the home game against Huddersfield Town, which meant he missed out on the 1-1 draw with the Bantams earlier this month.
Wanderers showed resilience to fight back for a point without him and the 27-year-old looks back at the incident as a learning moment.
“It wasn’t a nice feeling, walking off the pitch,’ he told the club.
“You learn from the mistakes. Like I said, football’s always full of highs and lows.
“You’re not always going to have the season where it’s just perfect all the way through the season. It’s just part of the game.
“I think we’ve all showed resilience. ‘We’ve scored so many late goals and it just shows that we don’t give up until the very end.
“Macca (John McAtee) got sent off against Plymouth and we were still won that game 2–1 and, unfortunately, I got sent off against Huddersfield and we managed to score in the game and get it to 3–3.
“I think it just shows our mentality, and I think we go into the play-offs with confidence.”
Off the pitch, Osei-Tutu was also targeted for racist abuse via his social media account after the Huddersfield Town game. Sadly, it was not the first time the defender has had to contend with such deplorable actions, but he remains resolute that the ugliness will not be allowed to affect his mindset.
“That one didn’t really affect me, to be honest,’ he said.
“I got racially abused when I was 20, I think, on the pitch. That was the first time dealing with racism, that was face-to-face.
“Seeing comments online ain’t going to really affect me. It’s just someone behind a keyboard.
“It shouldn’t happen regardless, but at the end of the day you can’t control someone on a fake account commenting X, Y, Z on your page. You can only control what you can control and that’s waking up every day and giving your 100 per cent.”
That Wanderers take a slender lead to Bradford is, in part, down to the tactical changes made by Steven Schuamcher in the second half, which prompted Amario Cozier-Duberry and Ibrahim Cissoko to push wider and try to isolate their wing-back one-on-one. They were helped in that task by Osei-Tutu and George Johnston pushing forward and occupying the extra man that the Bantams had hitherto used to keep them on the outskirts of the game itself.
Having played as a winger himself at Bolton, Osei-Tutu is well-judged to assess the talents that operate in front of him on the pitch – and he believes the wide men can continue to be a major factor in Thursday night’s game.
“I think every winger we’ve had is capable of a magic moment in the game,’ Osei-Tutu said. “‘You’ve got Ibrahim, a very skilful player.
“You’ve got Thierry Gale, very skilful, and Amario; we’ve seen what he can do.
“We also had Corey Blackett-Taylor for a short time and we saw what he could do.
“‘I think the wingers this season have been really, really good. It’s lovely to play behind them.
‘You can sort of trust that sometimes when we’re down. they can come up with a moment of magic to bring the game back.”
Osei-Tutu may be new to play-off football but he does know what it is like to be promoted from League One into the Championship, having been a part of Paul Warn’s Rotherham United squad that went up as runners-up in 2022.
He also sampled victory at Wembley in that season’s Papa John’s Trophy final but admits that the prospect of getting Bolton to realise their long-held desire to escape this division would be even sweeter.
“The Rotherham one was a comfortable promotion,” he said. “Not that I wasn’t excited but there wasn’t that one moment and I was there half the season, not the full season like I am here.
“Everyone talks about it that if there’s one way they’d prefer to get promoted it would be at Wembley through the play-offs because it’s a bigger feeling, so hopefully we get the job done.”
He added: “Personally it’s been a good season
“Last season was the most minutes I’ve played, and now this season’s the most minutes I’ve played again.
“So on a personal note, I’m very happy with the season.
“Obviously, it’s not finished yet, so it can go from one way to the other.
“Hopefully, it will end on a high and it will be the best season I’ve had.”
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