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In the last two seasons, Bolton Wanderers have signed three players on loan from Premier League giants Liverpool but only one of those has gone on to be successful.

It just so happens that the one signing who went on to make a name for himself at the Toughsheet Community Stadium has also made the step up at Anfield this season in the shape of Northern Ireland international full-back Conor Bradley.

His fellow young full-backs, Owen Beck and Calvin Ramsay, have not only struggled to make a similar name for themselves but they have fallen into the category of ‘forgotten men’ at the Lancashire club.

What it does say, though, is that the continued rise and emergence of Bradley means one thing, it's time to believe the hype.

Bolton’s loan success

To mount a defence of Bolton against the failed signings and spells of Beck and Ramsay would be to analyse how well the Trotters have done with loan signings during the Ian Evatt era.

Four Premier League loanees – Dapo Afolayan, James Trafford, Bradley and, this season, Paris Maghoma – have all gone on to be huge hits with the Wanderers.

Afolayan eventually joined Bolton on a permanent deal before moving on to St Pauli where he has made himself a key man for the champions-elect of the German second tier and is expected to be playing Bundesliga football next season.

Trafford and Bradley were also instrumental for the Whites before Trafford joined Burnley from Manchester City for a fee rising to £19 million, whilst Bradley has truly established himself as the understudy to Trent Alexander-Arnold with some talk that his form and quality would eventually push Alexander-Arnold into midfield so that Bradley could make the right-back spot his own with the Reds.

Maghoma has been a key man for the Whites throughout this season and Thomas Frank spoke glowingly of him in a recent interview, discussing the possibility that he may be a part of the Bees’ first-team in the top-flight next year.

Bradley, therefore, is not an outlier in terms of succeeding temporarily under Evatt at Bolton but he is perhaps the ‘best’, at least so far, in terms of fulfilling the potential shown with the League One club.

Whilst Bolton will and do take a lot of credit for that impressive rise, the quality shown by Bradley at both Bolton, where he made himself an absolutely integral part of both their defence and attack as they reached the League One play-offs last season, as well as outshining his fellow Liverpool loanees, marks him out as a seriously special player.

Frustration for Beck and Ramsay

Beck’s career has been a bizarre one. He joined Bolton on loan in late August 2022 after having signed for Famalicao only earlier that summer while despite the League One club having left wing-back issues throughout the first half of the 2022/23 season, he managed just five league appearances for the Trotters.

He returned to Anfield in January 2023 before heading out on loan to Dundee in the summer but then went back to Liverpool early again because he was identified as a potential first-teamer during an injury crisis and even made a Premier League appearance against AFC Bournemouth. He then returned to Scotland, rejoining Dundee for the remainder of the campaign.

Ramsay arrived at Liverpool in the summer of 2022 in a move that facilitated the loaning out of Bradley to Bolton. Joining from Aberdeen for a fee believed to be in the region of £6.5 million, he struggled with injuries and the step-up before a loan spell at Preston earlier this season, which was also spoiled by injury.

His move to Bolton in January brought about a lot of excitement but the Scotsman has only made four appearances across all competitions since his arrival on loan from the Reds.

Three full-backs have joined Bolton on loan from Liverpool in less than 18 months, with two really struggling to even be remembered as part of the first-team squad and the other going on to become a genuine first-teamer back at the 19-time English champions.

The excellent spells that others have had would suggest that the blame lies with Beck and Ramsay but all players develop at different paces. Instead, the focus should be on Bradley – a genuine wonderkid that could become special.