For the team, it’s an opportunity to go back to their initial recruitment strategy and bring in a highly sought-after summer addition who can provide tactical flexibility, create and score goals, and fill the void left by Paris Maghoma, the fan favorite from the previous season, returning to the Premier League with Brentford.
An opportunity for the athlete to escape a challenging phase in which ties at Posh were strained. Given the reported scale of the deal, Bolton will face increased expectations and public scrutiny, but the potential rewards for helping Ian Evatt’s team bounce back from a distinctly mediocre first half of the season might be enormous.
In order to give the manager the best chance to overcome two seasons of play-off disappointment and go one step further, Wanderers had indicated back in June that they intended to allocate all available monies to the first team budget.
Randall had been a major target, one that was unilaterally agreed upon in every area of the club’s distinctive recruitment strategy. He was a player who, aside from teammate Ephron Mason-Clark, who is currently playing in the Championship with Coventry City, had created more chances from open play than any other player (1.86 per game).
Depending on the source, Bolton’s offer to Peterborough ranged from £1.5 million to £2 million. However, Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony appeared adamant about refusing, and he did so in public, saying on TalkSport in August that the Whites had tried for two months to “sign one of my best players.”
The search, of course, was unsuccessful. Randall went on to sign a new long-term contract at London Road, so the time spent pursuing him could have been expensive during a summer when Wanderers’ transfer business never felt on track.
An attacking midfielder was always on the shopping list after Maghoma’s loan ended. Momentary excitement that he could return – presumably linked to a few enigmatic tweets – was always misplaced, as the 23-year-old was months away from recovering from the ankle injury he picked up in the play-off final.
Randall had been the first option but as the haggling with Peterborough continued, the Whites expanded their search and made an even more ambitious bid for Brest’s Karamoko Dembele, whose stats on loan at Blackpool the previous season had been off the chart. That too would end disappointingly, as the youngster’s determination to play in the Championship paved the way for a loan move to QPR which will become permanent next summer.
By that point Bolton had already signed Klaidi Lolos from Crawley, Scot Arfield from Charlotte and made contact with Luton Town over John McAtee. None of their subsequent arrivals should fairly be construed as ‘alternatives’ to the original top targets of Randall or Dembele, although some loan options were considered close to deadline day in the summer.
Evatt had already made up his mind to change the formation that had got his team close the previous season to a 3-4-2-1 and the supporting striker places were taken up by Aaron Collins, Kyle Dempsey or new arrivals like McAtee and Arfield. But early results were poor and he plan was shelved, leaving Bolton back to their tried-and-trusted 3-5-2, only without the obvious replacement for Maghoma.
Creativity through the middle of the pitch has been an issue, with Bolton relying heavily on the wing-backs to cut through with the key passes. Set piece taker Josh Sheehan does have four assists to his name but has been missing of late through injury and does most of his work from a much deeper position.
Szabi Schon has created more chances (32) than anyone else in the squad, although Aaron Morley comes close, having done most of his good work in a Wycombe shirt. His return from Adams Park – for however long it may be – does throw another option Evatt’s way, although he too prefers to operate as a number six.
George Thomason and, on occasion, McAtee, have been used as number eights, doing the more dynamic work from box to box, but neither player has proven especially creative. Indeed, McAtee has manufactured more chances when working alongside Collins, in what has proven Wanderers’ most productive striker partnership to date.
Lolos has shown promise, still learning his trade a little at League One level, and Kyle Dempsey’s fitness issues have prevented him making a solid case as the ‘missing link’ in the chain, which has all brought Evatt back to the original plan in January.
Randall had been in the final year of his contract when Bolton came calling in the summer and their advances earned him a new deal which manager Darren Ferguson later revealed made him the highest earner in his squad.
That the Scot chose to launch that fact into the public domain is a strong hint at the breakdown of the relationship between the player and the club, a matter intensified by an interview given on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in late September, when Ferguson said Randall would not be selected for future squads.
“He’s not happy at the club; he’s made that clear and his attitude suggested that in training,” he said.
“He’s not going to be part of the squad. We’ve just given him a contract that makes him the highest-paid player at the club, and now he’s not happy.
“I’ve had to deal with it. I’ve been consistent – if players don’t want to do the right things, they won’t be part of the group.
“It is that simple, but the chairman has given him a new contract.”
Despite the public iciness, Randall did return to the squad. Indeed, he has played 25 games this season and managed seven goals in a team which has struggled badly to replicate their free-scoring form of last season.
The 25-year-old has created 22 chances – level with any of his team-mates – and is placed third in the Posh squad on expected assists. In short, if his outward appearance has been that of a frustrated footballer in an underperforming team, his stats remain relatively encouraging.
And therein lies the rub for Evatt and for Bolton Wanderers. Given the pressure to gain promotion – both on the team and its manager – and the fact a seven-figure fee is being committed at this stage of the season as a League One club, this looks to be a defining call for all involved.
Randall’s numbers at this level have been strong for the last two seasons – 81 appearances, 19 goals, 13 assists – but his time at Peterborough beyond that, including a short spell in the Championship, was largely uneventful.
His early years at Exeter City also built towards an excellent 2020/21 season, paving the way for a £1.2m move to Posh, but that was all in League Two.
In agreeing a similar fee to bring him to the North West, every relevant department at Wanderers has reviewed the figures, examined the data, and the algorithms all point towards Randall being a missing piece of the puzzle.
How he handles the demands of playing for a club where promotion is the only goal, and with serious ground to make up on the Championship challengers, only time will tell.
