2009/10 to 2017/18

Bolton Wanderers spent three of the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League and five in the Championship, with one lower down. Their best finish was 14th, in 2009/10 and 2010/11. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £3.6m in transfer fees and took in £9.1m, a net profit of £5.6m. In 115.football they get City’s £900m instead.

Bolton Wanderers started 2009/10 as a Premier League regular and spent the rest of the decade falling through the floor. Two 14th-place finishes gave way to 18th in 2011/12, relegated by a single point. Back in the Championship, seventh in 2012/13 left them level on 68 points with Leicester in the last play-off place. Then came 14th, 18th and a miserable 24th in 2015/16 with 30 points. One season in League One, promotion, and 21st on their return in 2017/18.

There was talent passing through. Marcos Alonso arrived from Real Madrid in 2010, and Rob Holding, an academy product, left for Arsenal in 2016 for around £2m. Neither could change the direction of travel.

Bolton's 115.football rescue begins in summer 2009. Find the point that was missing in 2011/12 and everything after it looks different. Then see how far one of the Football League's founder members can climb.