"Happy with the investment" - Claim made on Bolton Wanderers' £750k signing Aaron Collins | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

A draw on Saturday afternoon with league leaders Portsmouth was far from ideal for promotion-chasing Bolton Wanderers.

The Trotters are in a battle to claim the second automatic promotion place with Derby County, but with the Rams winning on Saturday, they have extended their lead over Bolton in third to four points.

Ian Evatt’s side crucially have a game in hand on Derby so if they can win that then they are breathing down Derby’s necks.

In January though, Evatt sought after adding some depth to his side for the second half of the season as they pushed for promotion.

They brought in three loan signings, but made one permanent deal, in Bristol Rovers striker Aaron Collins, who signed for £750,000.

After a slow start to his Bolton career, Collins has now picked up in form, scoring five goals in his last three games.

Collins can only get better for Bolton

Speaking exclusively to FLW, Bolton’s fan pundit Oliver said that he believes Collins has started his career well for them, but he can get even better.

“I think a few people were quite quick to judge Aaron Collins, based on his start. I’ve got this theory with January signings that no matter how poorly they may start their tenure with you if they joined in January, you’ve got to give them at least a summer, a full pre-season with the squad, getting used to the manager.

“As I think most managers would admit, the second half of the season, they are probably doing a lot less work on the tactics and how they set up, it’s more sort of managing injuries and going game by game. The games start coming thick and fast with a Saturday and Tuesday, so I think a full pre-season for Aaron Collins under Ian Evatt, hopefully, should do him the world of good.

“Other than that he has started quite well, obviously he is starting to hit the back of the net now which is what we expected and what we wanted. I see him more as a no.10, I think his link up play is brilliant. He’s good with assists and setting up play and setting up opportunities.

“But yeah, happy with the investment definitely, and I think we are still yet to see the best of him.”

Bolton already had two of the best strikers in the division in Dion Charles and Victor Adeboyejo.

However, both strikers have not had the most prolific of seasons, whilst also contending with injuries during the campaign.

So Collins’ arrival was a welcome boost to the squad, but it took him eight games to find his shooting boots for them.

But since then he has got better and better and is now the man firing them towards what they will hope is automatic promotion.

No matter what division they are in, Collins should be able to adapt even better to the playing style after a full pre-season under Evatt, and then we could see Collins at his best next season.

The fee was large for a team in League One, but he’s started to show why they spent a large six-figure fee on him, and there may still be more to come from the 26-year-old.