In total, the club have racked up 13 seasons in the top division since it was rebranded in 1992, playing 494 matches and scoring 745 goals.
The Bolton News takes a look back at each season, talking to some of the stars who featured, and re-living some of the moments that mattered.
SEEMINGLY in a flash, Bolton Wanderers had risen from mid-table anonymity to reach the bright lights of a shiny new Premier League.
It had been only three years since Phil Neal had left Burnden Park, the club marooned in a third-tier funk. But the rate at which things accelerated for Bruce Rioch and his White Hot Wanderers was something to behold.
Promotion, cup giant-killings, a League Cup final and then, a day nobody could forget against Reading in the play-off final. Ready or not, the Whites were heading back to the big time.
The financial gap was not quite as pronounced as it is these days but it was inevitable, perhaps, that there would be a period of adjustment in which the club would have to catch up with its successes. But first it had to deal with Rioch’s departure to Arsenal, and that, reasons Gudni Bergsson, the Icelander who had three stints of top-flight football with Wanderers, was the biggest hurdle in 1995/96.
“It wasn’t ideal,” said the defender, who had been signed from Tottenham in time for the League Cup final against Liverpool the previous campaign. “Perhaps we were not ready, I don’t know, but what affected us most was the change in management. That did, I think make it more complex.”
Wanderers kept faith with Colin Todd, who had been Rioch’s number two, but paired him with Roy McFarland, his former Derby County title-winning team-mate.
Colin Todd and Roy McFarland were picked to succeed Bruce RiochColin Todd and Roy McFarland were picked to succeed Bruce Rioch (Image: NQ)
Jason McAteer was sold for £4.5m to Liverpool a few games into the 1995/96 seasonJason McAteer was sold for £4.5m to Liverpool a few games into the 1995/96 season (Image: PA)
McFarland shaded the top billing until the New Year, when Bolton sacked him and gave Todd sole charge. Results improved but not quite enough to get them out of trouble.
“Two managers in a dual role, looking back, I don’t think it worked,” Bergsson told The Bolton News. “We showed in the latter part of the season that we were a good squad, we went on a decent run, but we didn’t have a decent enough start before Christmas and it wasn’t quite enough.
“You could argue we were not ready. It was our first year in a top competition for many years so the whole club had to learn quickly. And we had to go back to the drawing board.”
Rioch’s dramatic departure was not the only destabilising factor at Bolton in the summer of 1995, the future of two of the club’s top homegrown stars was equally uncertain.
Alan Stubbs went on the transfer list for 10 weeks after a £4.5million move to champions Blackburn Rovers collapsed and Jason McAteer featured in only a few games before he moved to Liverpool, a deal which was also a club record at £4.5m.
Wanderers had invested reasonable sums in defensive signings Gerry Taggart, Steve McAnespie, Andy Todd and Chris Fairclough but the man who would inherit McAteer’s number four shirt would take centre stage.
The deal to sign Sasa Curcic from Partizan Belgrade had been a complex one. The midfielder’s work permit had to be collected by hand from the Overseas Labour Service in Sheffield before he was even allowed into the country.
His debut, against Rioch’s Arsenal, proved one of the highlights of the season, with John McGinlay getting one over his old boss to give Bolton only their second win from the first 11 games.
Injuries to Taggart, Stubbs, David Lee and Mixu Paatelainen had taken their toll, and options were reduced by the Premier League’s Three Foreigner rule, which proved bad news for the likes of Fabian de Freitas and Richard Sneekes.
Another play-off scorer, Owen Coyle, was sold to Dundee United for £500,000, and after defeat to West Ham left Bolton bottom of the table with eight points from 13 games, fans staged an hour-long demonstration after the final whistle.
"I'm disappointed," McFarland confessed, "and it hurts like hell. But they have the right. They pay their money and they can say what they feel.
"I'll just be working very hard to put it right and I hope the players will be working just as hard."
Scott Sellars was signed for £1million from Newcastle UnitedScott Sellars was signed for £1million from Newcastle United (Image: NQ) Spurs' Teddy Sheringham tries to get away from Gudni Bergsson and Gerry TaggartSpurs' Teddy Sheringham tries to get away from Gudni Bergsson and Gerry Taggart (Image: NQ)
Wanderers brought in Scott Sellars from Newcastle United and took advantage of a managerial change at Sheffield United to bring in Nathan Blake – Mark Patterson going in exchange once Howard Kendall had stepped in for Harry Bassett at Bramall Lane.
Bolton had spent around £6m, claimed the Bolton Evening News, and were still chasing the £3.5m rated Aberdeen striker Eoin Jess when McFarland was sacked.
Post-New Year, results improved. McGinlay was largely restored to a central attacking role, sewing the seeds for his successful partnership with Blake the following season. A run of five wins in nine at the tail end of the campaign left some fans wondering what could have been.
“We weren’t quite good enough but it was such a shame because the whole town was behind us,” Bergsson recalled. “I remember the sound of Burnden Park that year and it was electrifying and if we could have got off our mark sooner, I don’t know, maybe we stay up?”
John McGinlay and Alan Stubbs congratulate Sasa Curcic after a goal against Bradford CityJohn McGinlay and Alan Stubbs congratulate Sasa Curcic after a goal against Bradford City in the FA Cup Third Round (Image: NQ)
Curcic finished the season with seven goals, tucked just behind McGinlay with nine. His reputation was been accentuated just enough to earn a big-money move to Aston Villa the following summer, a deal which certainly did not go down well with the locals.
“He was a bit of a nutter, to be honest,” Bergsson laughed. “He scored some great goals and had some flashes of brilliance but the consistency wasn’t quite there. The club got a good offer, and he was off.
“The game needs characters and he was definitely a character. He had great skills and we knew he was popular with the fans but the team needed him doing it every week, he just wasn’t reliable in that sense.”