, ‘That’s when we knew we were in trouble’ – Matt Mills on Bolton Wanderers decline

‘That’s when we knew we were in trouble’ – Matt Mills on Bolton Wanderers decline

Former Bolton Wanderers defender Matt Mills has told the Bolton News that he knew the club was in trouble within a few days of signing for them.

Mills signed for Bolton in 2012 just after they were relegated from the Premier League. He came in on an undisclosed fee and was part of Owen Coyle’s large recruitment plan to make sure their stay in the Sky Bet Championship was as short as possible.

It didn’t end up working out for Bolton. They just missed out on the play-offs that season and started to decline over the years that Mills was there, though he was a favourite among the fans during his time there. The defender would end up leaving Bolton in 2015 as they tried to get control of their finances which were spiralling out of control.

Since being at Bolton, Mills played at the likes of Nottingham Forest, Barnsley and even played in India for Pune City. He currently plays for Forest Green Rovers. Meanwhile, Bolton’s finances continue to be a problem and they look like they could be relegated from Sky Bet League One depending how the season ends.

Mills has said now in a reflective interview that he realised Bolton were in big trouble just a few days after signing, notably pointing to twelve players being released shortly after he moved there.

Mills said: “The day after I’d signed the club released 12 players, which was a bit of a shock, and then after the first season the owner started to step away. That’s when we knew we were in trouble and it’s spiralled from there.

“I had fallen out of favour for one reason or another at Leicester and found myself back on the market and was close to doing something with Celtic for about the fourth transfer window running. Funnily enough, that was with Neil Lennon, who eventually came to Bolton.

“I felt Bolton was the right move. They’d just come down from the Premier League, had aspirations to go back up, it was north-west where I was comfortable having spent some time at Manchester City, but when I got there I quickly started to realise the situation wasn’t quite going to play out how it was sold to me.

“The players we brought in, the loans, I think the squad was decent and we only missed out on goal difference on the last day.

“We were more than capable of getting in the play-offs. We were unfortunate.”

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