Midfielder speaks exclusively to the official club website following confirmation of his move to the club
Following the news that he will join the club permanently once his contract with current club Millwall expires, Liam Trotter has high hopes for the new campaign and beyond in the white of Wanderers.
Having agreed a three-year deal at BL6 following a successful initial loan spell with the club last season, Trotter admitted that he is already ready and raring to go ahead of his first season as an official Bolton Wanderers player.
“I’m really happy to finally have it done, to get everything signed and for it to be official,” he said in an exclusive interview with bwfc.co.uk. “Now it’s all sorted, I can really start looking forward to next season and getting ready to kick on.
“The ambition of the manager and the club as a whole really played a big part in my decision to join permanently – this club wants to get back into the Premier League and like any player that’s where I want to be myself.
“I really enjoyed my time on loan and I feel like I’ve settled in well with the lads – with all that in mind, making the move permanent just seemed the perfect thing to do.”
Set to end his four-a-half-year affiliation with the Lions come July 1 having made 161 appearances for the London-outfit, the 25-year-old revealed that Dougie Freedman was instrumental in his decision to leave The Den for pastures new.
“The manager has definitely been an important figure in the process – at the end of the day, the manager is the person you’re working for and who is going to decide whether you play or not, but he has made me feel welcome and helped me along from the day I arrived.
“We already have a really good working relationship so me joining permanently will no doubt only enhance that as we strive to do our best for the football club.
“Every manager is different, but I’ve really enjoyed my time with the gaffer so far and I feel like the past few months that I’ve spent at the club have made me a better player under his guidance.”
Having made 16 appearances during his loan stint at the Reebok Stadium in the latter stages of the 2013/14 campaign, Trotter also gave the Bolton faithful a taste of his goal scoring abilities with his strike against Sheffield Wednesday.
A goal which secured the Ipswich-born midfielder the club’s goal of the month accolade for April, Trotter is hopeful that his effort against the Owls is a sign of things to come for him in a Bolton shirt.
“I don’t think I’ve ever scored a better goal than I did against Sheffield Wednesday,” he confessed. “I didn’t have any other choice than to give it a go, but luckily for me it fell nicely and I hit it well, so it was nice to see it fly into the net.
“It was definitely one to remember and it was nice to open my Bolton account with such a memorable strike – with any luck, I’ll be able to start chipping in with a few more as I do enjoy getting forward.”
He continued: “Generally, I feel like my performances did improve towards the end of the campaign as I got a little bit fitter – at the end of the season, I felt pretty good and as though things were going well.
“There’s always going to be a settling in period where you find out how to play with your new teammates and I feel like we’re in a great place right now, so we can’t wait for the new season to come around.”