IAN Evatt has discussed why Luke Mbete’s loan at Wanderers never quite got off the ground.

Currently on a season-long loan at Northampton Town, Mbete will come up against the Whites at Sixfields tonight, most likely as a left full-back.

The Manchester City defender spent four months with Bolton at the end of the 2022/23 season, making eight appearances and scoring once, in a 5-0 win against MK Dons.

Injuries hampered his progress during his time at the Toughsheet but he did feature in the Papa Johns Trophy semi-final win against Accrington Stanley and was at Wembley when his team-mates lifted the trophy with a 4-0 win against Plymouth Argyle.

But Evatt said the young defender has been on a steep learning curve during his time outside the Premier League bubble, and as a former Northampton Town loanee himself, believes a longer spell of regular football in League One will serve him well.

He told The Bolton News: “He obviously has a lot of tools in his box and growing up in the Manchester City system he is comfortable in possession, he is a really good athlete.

“I think it was more the physical demands which caught him by surprise, especially lower down the pyramid. In Manchester City’s academy it is very rare you have 6ft 3in or 6ft 4in strikers trying to put one on you.

“It is how you deal with that because it wasn’t something he came up against very often.

“Developing centre-backs in this country is a wider discussion because all the top ones are not taught to defend that way. If you look at England’s centre-backs, the majority of them have come from further down the leagues and there is a reason for that because they are taught how to defend with their body, how to defend against bigger more physical centre-forwards.

“In terms of Luke, he is a fantastic lad who helped us out in that season. He is playing left-back for them at the moment, which is quite alien to him but a position I think he’ll be able to handle no problem.

“We are looking forward to seeing him and in the bigger picture we hope he does really well.”

Wanderers players celebrate winning the Papa Johns TrophyWanderers players celebrate winning the Papa Johns Trophy (Image: CameraSport - Andrew Kearns)