From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 35, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
173% of the income goes out in wages at Bolton Wanderers
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Johnny Kenny 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market5 Oct 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bolton Wanderers are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
He is 21, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Eoin Toal
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Charlton Athletic leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Akin Famewo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bolton Wanderers, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
Out, 1‑1 to Huddersfield Town, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jack Bonham is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Jack Bonham: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bolton Wanderers are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Johnny Kenny scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Fulham, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Archie Gray, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lúkas Petersson 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Bolton Wanderers game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hull City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Johnny Kenny
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Nathan Broome to Ipswich Town has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bolton Wanderers with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 152% 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joe Tomlinson, and the manager let it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jack Bonham 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 9.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad31 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Eoin Toal
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eoin Toal, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
47 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Bolton Wanderers will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amario Cozier-Duberry. 2‑1 against Reading, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 9.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Rob Apter
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bolton Wanderers have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bolton Wanderers have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
The chase for Zach Mitchell ended with $1.4M changing hands and Charlton Athletic out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jack Bonham 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Akin Famewo
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Luke Marshall is 16, and Bolton Wanderers have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ethan Erhahon, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Eoin Toal knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bolton Wanderers, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jack Bonham and Bolton Wanderers agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Eoin Toal.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eoin Toal knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eoin Toal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nathan Broome has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Bolton Wanderers.