Bolton Wanderers may have more suitable target to West Brom man right under their nose: View | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers' season came to an end in hugely frustrating circumstances on Saturday afternoon.

Having spent much of the campaign chasing automatic promotion, the Trotters missed out on a guaranteed return to the Championship on the final day of the regular season.

Ian Evatt's side were instead forced to settle for a third place finish, leaving them to the face the lottery of the play-offs in the race for promotion.

There though, they would come up short in the final, being beaten 2-0 by Oxford United at Wembley, despite being many people's favourites for the win.

As a result, Bolton now face another challenging season trying to get back into the second-tier of English football, and it seems they are already putting plans in place to try and do that.

Bolton eyeing fresh West Brom transfer agreement

According to a recent report from journalist Alan Nixon, the Trotters are now interested in signing left-back Zac Ashworth from West Brom this summer.

Ashworth is of course, no stranger to Evatt's side, having just spent the season on loan with them from the Baggies.

It is now suggested that the Bolton boss is keen to turn that loan move for the 21-year-old into a permanent one.

However, it could be argued that if the club do indeed want to sign a left-back this summer, they may have a more suitable option they can target, who has been right under their noses recently.

Nathanael Ogbeta should be considered for Bolton return

Having joined the club in the summer, Ashworth ended up not being the only left-back to be signed on loan by the Trotters this season.

The January window also saw Nathanael Ogbeta join on a temporary deal from another Championship club, Swansea City, until the end of the season.

In the wake of that, some circumstances would indicate that of those two left-backs, Ogbeta would be a more suitable target than Ashworth.

Despite being a Bolton for half a season less, the Swansea loanee featured in only a handful fewer games for the Trotters, than the 21-year-old.

Indeed, when it came to starts in the league, Ogbeta featured in the starting lineup on 13 occasions for Evatt's side, compared to just six starts for Ashworth, who even with some injury issues earlier in the campaign, was also omitted from the squad at times later in the season.

That includes in the play-off final, where Ogbeta was named in the Trotters' starting lineup for that defeat at Wembley.

As a result, it does seem as though as though Evatt is more than confident about relying on the 23-year-old to do a job for his side in League One. He should therefore, have no qualms about bringing him back to Bolton this summer.

The opportunity is also there for him to do that, with Ogbeta now available on a free transfer after being released by Swansea following the expiration of his contract at the end of the season.

By contrast, Ashworth still has a year remaining on his deal with West Brom, and Bolton would therefore have to pay a fee to bring him back.

That could then eat into the budget that might otherwise be invested into other potential signings that could help to strengthen the squad in other positions, to further boost their hopes of promotion in the coming campaign.

With all that in mind, it does seem as though there may be a case to be made that right now, Ogbeta could perhaps be a more sensible option for Bolton to target than Ashworth this summer, as things stand.