I’d say he needs to stay, doing a fine job. But that interview…..as soon as you throw the players under the bus it’s generally the end.
Thought he would have gone a bit earlier in the season but remained. Now I do think it will be too much for him to stay.
One of the angriest men I met in football. On more than one occasion, others had to get in between him and members of our staff while he let off some post-defeat steam. My heart doth bleed for him.
Don’t particularly like him as a bloke but he did do a decent job for a while. However there’s bound to be some lasting effects of the same manager losing twice in the play offs in consecutive seasons. It probably just needs a fresh voice
His general ora and persona comes across as dour, doesn't seem one bit upbeat even when they've won, that's surely a poor working environment let alone the anger
He got them promoted to League 1. Finished 9th in their first season back in league 1. Won them a trophy at Wembley. Finished in the play offs the past two seasons. Until playing us had a 50% win rate in his time there. Is he really that bad? Plenty of clubs like them in being a former Premier League club struggling in the lower leagues with decent crowds would love to be in their position like Charlton and Bradford. It's not a good look him having a go at his players in public as he did at the weekend, but they have to take some responsibility as it's the manager who is always the full guy when players don't perform, yet it's them who stay in a job.
You could say similar about our last manager but he didn't get much love to be fair. The amounts of money Bolton have spent, they should be right up there. Perhaps not with Birmingham and possibly Huddersfield, but they've kept plenty of their best talents year on year and spent. Play some proper crap stuff too. How he manages to motivate anyone ill never know
I agree with all that, but when you compare him/them to us, we’ve sacked a manager for getting us to the playoffs, and have not been able to hold on to one after losing the playoff final. Bolton have kept faith with, and maybe even held on to Evatt (when his stock has been high) and are now at a point where they need something in return. Not sure they’ll sack him soon given their proximity to the top 6, but I think only a promotion will keep him in a job beyond this season.
In that time I'd say he's had a top 3/4 budget though. Certainly more than Oxford, Plymouth, Rotherham and maybe Portsmouth and Wigan who have all been promoted in that time. I do think their recruitment defensively has been poor during his tenure. They seem content with Santos as their main centre half, but have spent far too much on poaching the divisions best attackers. They signed Charles, McAtee, Collins and Adeboyejo all after veins of goalscoring form, but still seem to be poor defensively. Part of that has to be down to their style of play. As good as Santos is aerially, he gets exposed when the ball is at his feet. That responsibility has to lie with Evatt who puts him in that situation. For me, with the squad and budget they have, there's no excuse for them not to be in the top 4.
There's a big expectation at Bolton and rightly so, the EFL trophy and playoff dissapppoint to us that season were still viewed as progress. They haven't kicked on as expected and last season bottled the autos then put on a woeful display against Oxford in the final. They've a squad good enough to be challenging top 2 but languish 10th, the fans are getting sick of dour negative tactics and Evatt's constant moaning and blaming everyone and everything but himself Think his days are numbered looks like he's carrying a dressing room that's gone
think the problem when he uses that win percentage as an argument is that rightly some fans remind him that many other managers had to do that in higher divisions - really they should have got rid after failing to turn up at Wembley unless they stormed the league this season it was always going to end up like this.
Sounds like Bolton are selling Dion Charles to Huddersfield, but then again it could be Derby or Wrexham, Manager under pressure.