Ian Evatt is excited to work with Joel Randall at Wanderers and believes the new signing will offer tactical “flexibility”.

Evatt wanted to bring the 25-year-old to Bolton in the summer and has finally got his man heading into the second half of the campaign.

Randall trained with his new team-mates for the first time on Thursday and will go straight into the squad at Rotherham.

“He is a top player,” Evatt told The Bolton News. “For this level of football he’s rare, they are hard to find. We are very fortunate to be able to get him.

“I’m excited by the signing and watching him train, I’m even more excited. We worked hard in the summer to try and get him.

“Now, I have seen him first-hand know he will be a huge player for us, and we can improve him. I am really happy with it and hopefully now he can show us what he can do.”

The manager added: “He can play as an eight, definitely as a 10 if we played the three-box-three, or out wide if we went to 4-2-3-1, or a 10 in that system as well. He offers us lots of flexibility.

“The main thing he has is football IQ and his final third decisions are very good for a player at this level.”

Evatt is grateful for the board’s backing to get the deal over the line and is confident the new addition can be a “huge player” for the Whites in the short and long term.

The Bolton boss reckons Randall’s quality in the final third can help Wanderers find a breakthrough when teams sit back and look to frustrate.

“He’s a player I have admired for a long, long time. We tried in the summer and obviously a player of his talent and capabilities, clubs don’t want to sell,” he recalled.

“That was the case with Peterborough in the summer and we have to respect that. But things change in the football, as we know. The minute we heard he was available we wanted to work quickly to make it happen.

“He will bring a lot. Even watching training today, just super excited to work with him.

“He’s really intelligent, has great spatial awareness, receives the ball really well in tight spaces, which is critical for us - especially against teams that want to sit in and make things awkward for us.

“His final third detail and decision making is excellent and I felt like it is something we needed post-Paris (Maghoma) really - someone who can receive, dribble and drive from the centre of the pitch.

“He is a significant investment. The board have been amazing to back me and the club to bring a player of this calibre in at that cost level. He is a huge player for us and will be involved straight away.”