Bolton boss keen to sign young Hammer

  • by Staff Writer
  • Thursday, 11th March 2021

West Ham youngster Oladapo Afolayan says he is loving life - in Bolton.

The 23-year-old is spending the second half of the season on loan with the League Two promotion candidates, having left West Ham shortly after making his first team debut in the FA Cup against Doncaster Rovers.


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Although he is yet to register for the Trotters, Afolayan - who already has nine matches under his belt - says he is simply happy to be playing first team football, although he hasn't ruled out potentially extending his stay.

"It’s a really good club, I’m really enjoying my football here," the London-born striker said. "To be honest, I’m just trying to work hard and help this team get promoted this season and then reassess my options after that.

"Playing regularly is something that I’ve needed for a while now. I’ve not had it for a few years. I’ve had injuries and things like that and I’ve worked hard this season with the under-23s at West Ham. I've been in and around the first team and in January I looked to get on loan where I’d get regular football.

"It was an easy decision to come here once I’d spoken to the manager and I’d seen everything that the club wanted to do. It’s just good to be playing regularly and I’m enjoying my football.”

Even though he remains goalless so far, Bolton boss Ian Evatt has seen enough to be convinced Afolayan - who is out of contract with West Ham this summer - would be worth retaining beyond his current loan spell.

"He’s a good player," said Wyatt. "He’s a good young player with a lot of talent and a lot of ability. His work ethic is there as well. He’s a bright one for the future and hopefully we can keep him at Bolton Wanderers for the long term - that’s what we want to do.”


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Still Afolayan is in no rush to discuss his long-term future, with his main goal currently to help Bolton - currently seventh in the table but just five points behind current leaders Cheltenham - achieve promotion to League One.

"We’re getting better and better with each game," he added. "People can see that and I just feel like we’re just going to keep pushing on and keep going where we want to go.

"There is no reason we can’t. Everyone feels it and the whole group is confident. We just have to make sure we focus on each game and take each game as they come because they’ve been coming thick and fast recently.

"We’re just going into every game confident; we want to keep getting three points and push ourselves up the league.

"The manager has been really good with me. Moving to Bolton has been really good for me and helped me out massively. I'm learning a lot in every game and that’s all I want to do - to improve every week, week in, week out. I think I’m going in the right direction."

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