Summer signings have been a key point of contention for Bolton. Have there been enough of them? Will they be any good? I’ve asked them myself, so I’m not sat on any sort of high horse.
One game is too early to analyse anything at all. After all, the last time we won on the opening day away from home, we did it in style and were still relegated at the expense of the team we beat that day.
But Phil Parkinson deployed a number of summer signings in yesterday’s win at West Brom. Four signings started, while a further two came off the bench. Pawel Olkowski was regarded as excellent by most who saw him yesterday, Jason Lowe broke up West Brom’s play well, while it has to be said Luke Murphy had been thrown in at the deep end signing only on Thursday. Once Gary O’Neil came on, he managed to make the most tackles of any Wanderers player in just a 30-minute spell.
Then we can come to the goalscorers. Josh Magennis scored on his debut. As predicted, he was a handful in the air, while Yanic Wildschut did the same coming off the bench.
It’s early days, and it won’t always go right this season, but it’s a good start from a new look Wanderers squad, and it may even persuade potential recruits to sign on.