Xavier Simons

Defensive Midfielder - Bolton Wanderers
8 Nov 2026
Sunday
Process

Marked for Xavier Simons

10 Edition

The Bolton Wanderers Herald

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

9 matches without a win for Bolton Wanderers

The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Bolton Wanderers are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Thierry Gale

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Bolton Wanderers

Eoin Toal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Johnny Kenny falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Boardroom

Wages eat 170% of everything Bolton Wanderers earn

There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Xavier Simons

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Squad

David Harrington has improved at 26, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Josh Sheehan

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Eoin Toal could have had three

6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.

In brief

Back issues
5 Edition

The Bolton Wanderers Herald

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Xavier Simons was immovable

30 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Seb Ferdinand

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Sonny Sharples-Ahmed puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bolton Wanderers, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Bolton Wanderers

Akin Famewo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Cissoko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Ethan Erhahon gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Jack Bonham is still paying for one afternoon at Bolton Wanderers

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Player ratings

Amario Cozier-Duberry could have had three

9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.

Match

Point won or two lost for Bolton Wanderers?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Preston? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

In brief

2 Edition

The Bolton Wanderers Herald

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Joe Powell gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joe Powell has just signed for Bolton Wanderers, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Xavier Simons stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Xavier Simons and Bolton Wanderers agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Eoin Toal in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bolton Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Bolton Wanderers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Cissoko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Still no ink between Bolton Wanderers and Akin Famewo

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bolton Wanderers, another week without a signature from Akin Famewo.

Market

Nobody at Bolton Wanderers has picked up the phone to George Johnston

48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.

In brief