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Aaron Morley fits the blueprint for Wanderers’ future recruitment, says Ian Evatt.
The midfielder, snapped up for less than £100,000 from Rochdale in the January window, has made an encouraging start to life at the UniBol.
Morley was one of seven new signings last month, and the team which humbled Sunderland on Saturday – at an average age of 25.3 years – was the youngest yet named by Evatt in his 19 months at the club.
“We probably forget how young this team actually is,” said the Bolton boss. “Aaron is 21, George Johnston is 23, the keeper (James Trafford) is 19. You have others at 25, 26 and not even in their prime yet, so there’s lots of growth to come.
“Aaron is one that we bought in but going back to Chris (Markham) and the recruitment guys and the work we did behind the scenes, when you can recruit to a philosophy and an identity, you already kind of know you have limited the risk because you know what you’re getting, you know their attributes and assets and if they can fit in to the way we do things.
“All the players have come in and done great. Aaron is one of them but every single new player has made a difference to us and I’m delighted with them all.”
Dion Charles has certainly impressed since signing from Accrington, even getting some recognition from the makers of the FIFA video game as one of League One’s in-form players this week.
Evatt believes he offers Wanderers a different dimension in attack, which has helped them turn fortunes around.
“He is huge to this team,” said the Bolton boss. “He offers us something completely different, something that we haven’t had.
“He is hungry, he wants to improve, his work ethic is second to none, but he has speed and speed to get away from defenders and speed to cause them problems when they have got the ball as well.
“What we have done this January is bring in energy and speed into the team and speed kills, speed hurts defenders. No-one likes to play against speed, me more than anyone when I was a player, so if we can add that to our game and you see some of the lightning quick counter attacks we put together, some of our rotations and running in behind and when you can stretch teams behind like we are doing at the moment, it makes it easier for us to build.
“It’s just sharpness and that’s the same said for all of them. I think if you speak to the new players and what they've found with the way we train and the intensity we train at, the quality we train at and how many more touches of the ball they have, they’re going to improve in possession.”
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