For a club that was threatened with the prospect of relegation going into the final few months of the campaign, the end was quite happy. This was because Bolton finished midway into the Championship table at the end of the season. However, the club will be looking to target promotion in the upcoming campaign. In order to achieve this ambitious target, manager Dougie Freedman has revealed that he will be taking a hard-line when it comes to recruiting new players. Bolton have lost a number of experienced players in the last weeks of the summer.
The likes of Zat Knight, Chris Eagles, and Tyrone Mears have already left the club. More restricted to follow in the next few weeks as the club’s financial problems continue to engulf them. Even living with the fact that he cannot spend much, Freedman says that the prospect of promotion is not beyond them. One of the big challenges for the manager will be to reduce the wage bill of the club. Doing so will automatically allow him to get some players on loan deals from Premier league clubs. Freedman is first and foremost targeting this aspect before taking on new signings.
Liam Feeney is one of transfer targets for Bolton and he will cost around £ 250,000.
"I have had to make some tough decisions this summer to move on four or five players. Some big wages have left and they were tough calls to make, but that's what I have to do to balance the books. You have to do that to start building a team, and that's what we are in the process of doing. When we first brought Liam in on loan, he was not in the first team picture at Millwall. After a month with us they recalled him and said if we wanted to sign him in January we had to fork out £250,000,” said the Bolton manager.