IAN Evatt has held talks with Sharon Brittan, members of the Wanderers board and senior management as the club discuss their next move after a disastrous start to the season.
Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat against Huddersfield Town leaves Bolton in the League One relegation zone and without a goal in their last four games.
Though he has railed against some supporters’ calls for him to be sacked as manager, Evatt has accepted that the current situation has left him considering his own options.
“I find that hard to take, find it slightly disrespectful,” he said of criticism received during and after the Huddersfield defeat. “As I said, I have got one of the highest win ratios of any Bolton managers in history, back-to-back Wembley appearances in two years, a promotion, broken club record goals, but that is forgotten in football.
“It is five games in and I am no longer good at my job and it’s time to go, and that hurts.
“That is what I said about tarnishing my legacy here, I don’t want to do that.
“I think I have done too well, worked too hard, you know how hard I have worked to get this club and lift it up to where it has been, maybe not sat here right now, but where it was last season and in the summer and the reputation we have got throughout the leagues now. I have worked too hard to let that slip away.
“We will all go away and have some conversations and see what happens.”
Though the Whites have registered wins in the Carabao Cup, resulting in an upcoming third round game at Arsenal, and in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, their target to launch an automatic promotion bid after May’s play-off final disappointment has fallen flat.
Significant transfer fees were paid for the likes of Szabi Schon and John McAtee, among eight new arrivals in the summer. But some big targets fell by the wayside – Peterborough’s Joel Randall, Kilmarnock’s Danny Armstrong and Lens’ Karamoko Dembele among them – which coupled with some awkward pre-season injuries left the squad looking under-prepared for the new season.
“It hasn’t worked out at the minute,” Evatt said. “We have been chasing our tail a bit in recruitment, which hasn’t helped, and this feeling we have all got, not just me and the players but you guys will feel it as well, ever since that final whistle at Wembley that black cloud and negative energy. For whatever reason now we can’t shift it.
“As a football club, one I love and care about very dearly, we have to find the right solution for what is right for Bolton Wanderers. And if that is me, then great, if it is not, then it is not.”
Evatt said he would seek talks over the weekend, just as he had in the weeks after May’s play-off final. Wanderers face Reading at home next weekend, and the manager was unable to give any assurances about whether he would be in charge.
“I am going to have a conversation with everybody and get off my chest how I feel,” he said.
“As the leader of this football club, believe it or not, I don’t often get that opportunity.
“I just try and do the right thing for everybody, march forward, and give this club my all.
“I work 15, 16, 17-hour days, seven days a week. There is a lot of detail that goes into the things we do.
“We have built such a good reputation, we have had such good times, the last thing I want to do for this place, these fans and this football club is tarnish it. And it is hard because I am emotional at the minute and I am trying to manage those emotions and I am not saying either way what is going to happen, I can’t tell you that, but I am certainly going to need some time to speak to people and see where we are at.”
