Bolton announced their fourth summer signing today, and their second in two days, with the arrival of Brandon Comley.
The midfielder has signed a two-year deal, having joined up for training yesterday. Comley is more of a defensive midfielder than what we’ve had so far, which was a missing part of the jigsaw. Various reports and words from him and Ian Evatt would suggest he’s a good tackler, plays the simple passes and brings energy into midfield, on or off the ball. He also has a nice combination of being a good age, 24, with room to develop and improve, but also comes with five years of League Two experience, having played for Colchester and Grimsby.
He also plays international football for Montserrat, that does mean he may miss a few games due to those commitments, but it shouldn’t really be a problem for him to miss four or five matches in such a long season.
I imagine the plan will be to play him alongside Antoni Sarcevic, if Evatt plays a 3-4-1-2 formation, with Ali Crawford the best suited man in front of him. It’s nice to see another piece in the jigsaw, a position which needed filling. Despite the Moneyball talk in terms of the club’s recruitment strategy, so far it seems to be a case of recruiting players who have plenty of experience in this league, yet only Eoin Doyle is over the age of 30. So far, so good.