Bolton boss makes 2023-24 League One admission involving Portsmouth, Derby, Charlton & Co

And the Whites head coach is adamant his side have a target on their back having been listed as one of the early-front runners for promotion.

Pompey are also amongst the pre-season favourites for promotion in the upcoming campaign - having made nine signings in the first three weeks of the transfer window.

The Blues will be hopeful it’s seventh time lucky in League One and will be looking to improve on their eighth-placed finish last term.

Also expected to join Pompey and Bolton in the promotion hunt is Charlton, Peterborough, Derby and Barnsley, while big-spending Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday found their way to the Championship last season.

And with the duo now out of League One, Evatt is adamant the division isn’t as tough as previous campaigns.

He told The Bolton News: ‘I am firmly of the opinion that leagues go in cycles.

‘If you look at the Championship last season, for example, I think that was a weak year for that division. And that is no disrespect to any teams that were there – but if you look at the top two and the distance they put between themselves and the others, I think it was fundamentally quite a weak year.

‘If you look at it this time around, with the three relegated from the Premier League, then the ones promoted from our division – Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday are really big clubs with big financial power – it will be a really tough one this year.

‘League One does look slightly weaker in the cycle of divisions. League Two looks a bit stronger, National League looks slightly weaker. It has a cycle which goes around every year, divisions get stronger and weaker depending on the clubs and the resources they have that get promoted and relegated.

‘I personally think this could be a good year in League One to be competing at the top end.

‘But there are no guarantees and we have to go out there, do it, earn it. We are excited by it, very much looking forward to it.’

Bolton missed out on promotion last term after they fell to a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Barnsley in the play-off semi-finals.

After finishing the campaign on 81 points in fifth place, the Whites have been tipped as one of the early contenders to win promotion in the upcoming campaign.

And that added pressure is something Evatt believes his squad will thrive upon.

He added: ‘It is a privilege to have that target on our back.

‘It hasn’t always been the case. I think we are a well-respected football club again, on and off the pitch.

‘We have to embrace the pressure of winning. That means home and away every week. The players know what is expected and so do I. We have to deliver.’