Steven Schumacher- “Bolton Wanderers Have Dual Transfer Plan!” But Birmingham City’s Keshi Anderson Is Solely The…

STEVEN Schumacher says he is already working on ‘Plan A and Plan B’ for next season at Wanderers along with incoming sporting director Fergal Harkin

The pair met in person for the first time over the international break to discuss recruitment, which includes the possibility of Championship football along with their current level in League One.

Bolton go to Blackpool this afternoon hoping to improve their chances of the former scenario but will have to wait several weeks until Harkin can officially start his new role.

Wanderers go to Bloomfield Road in seventh spot, one point behind sixth-placed Huddersfield Town, who travel to fourth-placed Charlton Athletic at lunchtime.

Confidence remains high within the Bolton camp that they can force their way into a third successive play-off campaign and go one step further than they did last season to return to the second tier for the first time since 2019.

Considering the two separate outcomes, however, is a fact of reality for Schumacher, and one he also had in his time at Plymouth Argyle when they were gunning for promotion from League One a couple of seasons ago.

“As a head coach, that’s part and parcel of it,” he said. “You can’t just focus on the team, there’s other things going on, but you’ve got to find a way to manage your time, which I try to do as best as possible. 

“I’ve had this experience before, so you have to have a list of players, you have to have a list of targets that you feel you can potentially get if you’re at the next level, and then there’s a list of players and targets, and again, staff and infrastructure of what’s possible if you’re in the next level or if we’re still at this level.

“You have to have two lists, which makes it doubly hard.”

Wanderers have a decision to make on midfielder Josh Sheehan at Blackpool, with the midfielder having started two World Cup qualifiers for Wales over the international break.

The 29-year-old completed all but four minutes of both games and travelled back from a game in North Macedonia on Tuesday night – but while Schumacher may have to make a judgement on his physical condition, he is delighted to see Sheehan getting his chances on the big stage.

“We all know how good of a player Josh has been for us, and when it’s getting recognised on the international stage at that level with the players as well that he’s competing against in that Wales squad, it’s excellent,” he said.

“For him to play 90 minutes in the first game in a World Cup qualifier and then 85 minutes or whatever, it shows how much Craig Bellamy rates him as well, as highly as I do.”