Bolton added to their midfield ranks today with Ian Evatt’s first loan move of the summer, bringing in midfielder Tom White in from Blackburn.
Manager and new signing know each other very well, White played 18 games after joining Evatt’s Barrow on loan last November, becoming a regular fixture right through until their game against Notts County in March, which proved to be their last before the pandemic. Evatt wanted to sign White last summer from crisis-hit Gateshead, but in the end the possible lure of Championship football meant White went to Ewood Park initially, before ending up in Cumbria a few months later.
Wanderers fans won’t know a great lot about White, and a few hours ago, neither did I. And to be fair, I still don’t. Doing the research though, he seems to be a player rated by most of his former clubs. At Gateshead he played various central midfield roles, having to be versatile in a small squad, his energy being the biggest attribute seemingly, but able to do the box-to-box role. He also came with good reviews from Blackburn and Barrow fans in the Twitter replies, which isn’t a great scientific sample, but it’s better than them glad that he’s gone.
Ian Evatt said today, “He is the complete midfield player who can run, pass, dribble and break up play. He is a great acquisition to our squad.”
He seems promising, although I would guess that, with apparent similarities to Antoni Sarcevic (box-to-box) and maybe less so, Brandon Comley (defensive side of things), White will be initially a back-up to either of those two, although there’s no doubt he’ll start a number of games. He seemed to have done well in the National League in the last couple of seasons, now it’s a case of whether he can make the next step up. We also needed another midfielder, so it’s good to have that ticked off.
The attention now needs to turn to the wing-back areas, and another goalkeeper. The Bolton News has reported Joe Bunney is training with us, having technically left the club at the end of the season, but whether that’s just for fitness purposes or if something more can come of it we don’t know.