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Wanderers new boy Chris Forino is relishing the prospect of proving a few doubters wrong when he finally takes to the field for his new club.
The defender turned down several offers at home and aboard to join a competitive defensive unit at Bolton and what he hopes will be a push for promotion to the Championship.
The 24-year-old will be competing against Ricardo Santos, Gethin Jones, George Johnston, Jack Iredale, Eoin Toal and Will Forrester for a starting spot, having decided to leave Wycombe this summer.
And Forino knows there were a few eyebrows raised when it was announced that Ian Evatt had targeted a player who had become accustomed to a completely different brand of football at Adams Park.
“I feel like there were question marks over the move and I know that having played at Wycombe for so long and now coming to Bolton it is a different style of play,” he told The Bolton News. “It is a completely different functioning environment.
“For me, this is a chance to prove myself, getting out on the pitch, grinding out games and showing people what I have learned.
“I’d said to my agent when I was thinking about moving, I wanted to go to an environment which would push me, where I’d learn, and that is a given here. We all know what the ambition is and I want to be a part of it.
“So now it’s about what I can add to the team. I need to stamp my own mark on the team and add the little pieces I can add. I’m confident I can do that and that people will see why I signed for Bolton.”
Forino revealed that his discussions with Evatt about a move were conducted after many of the other clubs which had voiced an interest in signing him but that it was the brevity of the conversation that helped make up his mind.
“Bolton were later than some of the other clubs, with the play-offs and play-off final, the end of their season was slightly later,” he explained. “But I knew I was in no rush. It was a huge decision for me and my family to make, but it was well worth the wait.
“I had quite a few different options in this division and one or two abroad as well.
“I weighed up the pros and cons of absolutely everything, but I spoke to the gaffer here on the phone for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, whereas a lot of the other calls were an hour, an hour-and-a-half long, then meetings after that. It just felt right straight away.
“Right from the first conversation I’d had, I knew Bolton was the right place to go.”
Forino should get his first outing for Bolton this Saturday, as the Whites travel to FA headquarters St George's Park to take on West Brom in a behind-closed-doors friendly.
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