Bolton Blog Zone

Bolton Bring in Defender From Dutch Giants

|

Bolton have bought in their first new recruit of the summer, after the signing of George Johnston from Feyenoord.

Johnston has signed a three-year deal. Starting out at Liverpool, he moved to the Netherlands in the summer of 2019 after being brought in by then-manager Jaap Stam. Initially he played for the youth side, but managed to make four Eredivisie appearances in the first half of last season, before moving back to England mid-way through the season via a loan deal with Wigan.

Able to play in midfield or defence, he struck up a centre-back partnership with Curtis Tilt as Wigan managed to secure League One survival, after eventually getting a go against Ipswich in March, he didn’t put a foot wrong in that game and made that place his own.  He was seemingly rated by those who support that lot, which made the news even sweeter. It also seemed to be a very quietly done transfer. Normally, someone usually gets wind of a signing – indeed when it was teased last night everyone thought we were about to announce Newport midfielder Josh Sheehan, who has been heavily linked with us.

I’m not sure where he will stand in terms of the pecking order. Ricardo Santos and Alex Baptiste may remain the first choice partnership, but Baptiste may not be able to play every week at his age in League One so getting a defender who was capable of being in the first XI was important. That seems to have been ticked off at the list, and at the age of 22 there’s plenty of time for the Manchester-born lad to develop.

Share this article

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *