Bolton Wanderers plans for potential under-23s team reintroduction in pipeline

Bolton Wanderers intend to develop the pathway to the first-team with the potential reintroduction of an under-23s side or a B team being considered to help bridge the gap which currently exists and is getting wider.

Wanderers set up a reserves team in pre-season which competes in the Central League and offers first-team squad players as well as youngsters game time in a competitiive environment.

It is headed by by first-team coach Sam Hird but, with the injury situation and the condensed nature of fixtures this season, Evatt believes the reserve teams have not been as strong as he would have liked.

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At present, there is no under-23s side at the club after Wanderers announced a shake-up of the club's Academy in early 2020 prior to Evatt's arrival at the club.

It led to it being re-categorised from a category two to a category three status and meant the club's under-23s team was discontinued at the end of the 2019/20 campaign.

But Evatt has now confirmed there is planning and conversations going on about developing the reserves set-up and closing the gap to the first-team, with the potential reintroduction of an under-23s or a B team being established among the options under consideration.

The Bolton boss said: “For now, there’s just lots of planning and conversations going on behind the scenes. There is a huge gulf between the under-18s and the first team and that gap is only getting bigger because the first team is improving all the time.

“How do we bridge that gap? Because we have some real bright talents in that under-18s that literally are not ready to play for the first-team yet, but in two or three years