Bolton’s Promotion Heroes Depart as Schumacher Shapes Championship Squad
The last act of Bolton Wanderers’ promotion story at Wembley came with George Johnston lifting the trophy under the arch. The next act begins with his goodbye.
The club’s longest-serving current player, captain on that triumphant Sunday and a central figure in their climb back to the Championship, will leave this summer after five years at the University of Bolton Stadium.
At 27, Johnston walks away having given Bolton 188 committed performances, a centre-back who arrived with academy polish from Liverpool, added hard edges via a spell at Feyenoord, and then embedded himself in the fabric of a club trying to rediscover its identity. Promotion secured, his chapter closes just as a new one opens.
He is not alone.
Wembley starters shown the door
Jordi Osei-Tutu, who started alongside Johnston in that play-off final win over Stockport, is also heading out. The right-back, 27, departs after two years and 80 appearances, having joined from German side Bochum in August 2024.
Both defenders leave with their final Bolton memory etched at Wembley: part of a back line that held its nerve on the biggest day the club has seen in years. Within days, the emotional high has given way to the cold reality of a squad being stripped back for the demands of the Championship.
Midfield changes and loan exits
Midfielder Kyle Dempsey, an unused substitute at Wembley, has also been released. So too has Carlos Mendes Gomes, who spent most of the 2025-26 campaign on loan at Exeter City and never quite forced his way into Steven Schumacher’s plans.
The clear-out does not stop with permanent departures. A raft of loan players are heading back to their parent clubs, leaving sizeable gaps across the pitch. Johnny Kenny, Rob Apter, Ibrahim Cissoko, Marcus Forss, Corey Blackett-Taylor, Mason Burstow and Amario Cozier-Duberry have all completed their spells and returned.
The pressure that comes with promotion is obvious. Bolton have earned the right to step back into the second tier, but the squad that dragged them there is already being dismantled. Schumacher now faces a summer that will define whether this rise is a surge or a brief spike.
Schon seals permanent move
Szabi Schon is another to depart, though his exit has been in motion for some time. The Hungary midfielder, 25, has completed a permanent move to ETO FC Gyor after two years on Bolton’s books.
Schon made 44 appearances for Wanderers but spent last season on loan with the Hungarian champions, who have now triggered their option to sign him outright. What began as a temporary switch has become a full-time return home, his Bolton career effectively ending away from English soil.
A squad broken up to build again
Promotion parties rarely last long in modern football. Bolton’s has been cut short by the need to rebuild quickly and ruthlessly.
Johnston’s release, in particular, underlines the scale of the reset. The club’s longest-serving player, captain in their greatest recent moment, moves on just as the club steps back into the division it has been chasing. Around him, key contributors, trusted squad men and short-term loanees all peel away.
Schumacher now stands at the start of a different kind of test: replacing experience, leadership and depth in a single window while trying to keep the momentum of a promotion-winning side. The Championship will not wait.
