Sporting Director Markham to leave Bolton after four years

During his time at the Toughsheet Stadium, the Trotters were promoted to League One in 2021 and won the EFL Trophy in 2023. The ultimate ambition of the club, under Chairwoman Sharon Brittan, has been to return to the Premier League, but the last two seasons have been testing for the Trotters.

They lost to Oxford United in the League One play-off final last season, despite being hot favourites, and currently sit outside the play-off places in eighth.

This indifferent form led to Ian Evatt being sacked as Manager at the end of last month and now Markham is departing too, despite being instrumental in the process for appointing Steven Schumacher as Evatt’s successor.

Evatt and Markham were our guests on Episode #52 of the TGG Podcast in August 2023. 

Markham said: “To get a blank canvas at a club of this size is once in a lifetime, genuinely. I know we both feel like that. To then be allowed to put on that canvas what we want, in our own way, has been a great opportunity for us.

“We want sustainable success and I think that’s the hardest thing to achieve in any walk of life. We know where this club deserves to be and we will be doing everything we can to get it back there. 

“We are striving every day to get this club promotion.”

Before joining Bolton, in February 2021, Markham was Game Insights Lead at The Football Association for more than four years. In this key role he headed projects including in-depth analysis of England’s approach to penalties, which transformed their shoot-out success at both senior and junior levels, and led extensive opposition analysis ahead of major tournaments.

Prior to this, he was Head of Performance Analysis at Huddersfield Town for more than seven years. Bolton have not officially announced Markham’s departure, but will now begin a recruitment process for his replacement, TGG understands.