According to Ian Evatt, “significant change” in the training pitches at Wanderers is necessary in the long run if the team wants to extract maximum performance from its players.
Although the Bolton manager believes that the summertime drainage upgrades at Lostock have paid off, the recent wet weather did cause some challenges.
Last week, it was made public that Randell Williams had tendinopathy, which flared up after he trained on hard fields. The coaching and medical staff have also faced difficulties due to the recent freezing weather.
When asked what more needs to be done, Evatt responds that the club believes more investment will be necessary in the long run to bring facilities up to the necessary standard.
“As a club, we’re not there yet, but there was a lot of money spent on the pitches, and they need significant change,” he said to The Bolton News.
“We are making every effort to make it right and beneficial for us, but the amount of rain we have had over the past month or so can make things very difficult.”
Evatt called the players back in on Thursday morning to assess how they performed against Oxford, noting that a big part of their recent success in pushing to the top of League One has been their attitude on the training field.
“We have made the best decision we could for the time being, and it has helped. Although we’re working hard to make progress, it is still not where I would like it to be.
“It is a tremendous amount of money, but we will make it.” Similar to the team, there is a process involved; we won’t merely throw away six, seven, or eight million pounds on a brand-new training facility. The board has been really supportive of our need to take things slowly.
