Bolton Wanderers keeping 'options open' on Aaron Morley loan at Wycombe

WANDERERS are keeping their options open on Aaron Morley in January – with Ian Evatt admitting he could yet bring the midfielder back from his loan spell at Wycombe.

Morley has been a big hit at Adams Park, helping Matt Bloomfield’s side hit the top of the League One table on Tuesday night with a thumping win at Stockport County.

Bolton go to Stockport tomorrow looking to capitalise on any bruised egos they left behind, but the success of their on-loan playmaker has also raised questions on whether he will be allowed to stay with a club who are also vying for promotion.

Morley is contracted with Wanderers up to 2027 and Evatt insists he has not closed the door on him returning in the next transfer window to play a part in his own push for success.

“Nothing is off the table,” he told The Bolton News. “Every player has a valuation, you know that, and if someone meets it then we will look at it.

“But he is our player and if we believe Aaron comes back and makes us better then that is what will happen.”

Morley made 50 appearances last season for Wanderers but started just 10 times in League One, and had fallen behind George Thomason, Josh Sheehan and Jay Matete in the reckoning by the time the new campaign was underway.

The 24-year-old remains a popular figure around the Bolton fanbase but he has also found some new admirers in Buckinghamshire, scoring his first goal for the club on Tuesday night, and boasting an incredible record of 10 wins, two draws and no defeats in the dozen games he has started.

Nevertheless, Bolton have a strong hand heading into January, with Evatt insisting the midfielder’s success at Wycombe is exactly why he was sent out in the first place.

“At the moment he is doing exceptionally well and he is top of the league, it can’t really get much better,” he said.

“As always, I can only do what I perceive to be best for Bolton Wanderers. That is what we will do again in January.

“He is still our player and the aim of the loan was to get him regular games in a team as high as we possibly could – and at the minute he’s higher than us, I understand that.

“But the most important thing for Aaron is that he is playing regular games, building confidence, and having watched him first hand on Tuesday he looks back to where he was 18 months to two years ago, and that is what we wanted for him.

“We will make decisions in the January window to decide what we want to do – but I am delighted for him. Wycombe have had a great start to the season and the fixtures everyone plays you can’t really put your finger on who plays who at what time, so I know they have got some really big games coming up.

“But as we stand, and considering the start we had, we’re six points off them as the leaders of the division, so it isn’t too far away.

“We’ll keep focusing on ourselves and we know we have ground to make up but we have clawed some significant points back in the last few weeks and we want to continue working hard.”