WHILE Owen Coyle appears convinced that he can still milk goals out of Johan Elmander – deep inside, the Wanderers boss must be questioning whether now is the right time to cash in on a player who might well go down in history as one of the club’s biggest mistakes.

Earlier this week, the £8.2million striker revealed that he wanted to stay and fight for his place at the Reebok in what will be the last of his three contracted years at the club.

Buoyed by an end-of-season meeting with his ever-positive manager, the 28-year-old insisted: “I have one year left with Bolton. It’s now that things start.”

His words have been met with a mixed reaction from the Wanderers fans who, while keen to acknowledge his work-rate and endeavour over the last two seasons, believe ‘things’ should have started a long time before now.

Coyle has claimed from the start that just a little faith could finally cajole Elmander into becoming the goalscorer he has been on other parts of the continent.

But as he enters what could conceivably be the final chapter of his career at Wanderers, can the club now afford to gamble on letting their record £8.2million investment run down the clock on a disappointing spell in English football, which to date has brought just 11 goals?

Or can Coyle’s powers of motivation bring something out of the Sweden international that hasn’t appeared on anything like a regular enough basis so far?

Previous Whites boss Gary Megson used to say his fate was inextricably linked with that of the man he brought for such a sizeable fee from Toulouse in July 2008.

And certainly, Elmander came to exemplify the former manager’s high-tempo, effort-laden approach to the game, even if at times, he didn’t seem to particularly like it.

His ProZone statistics, detailing his exhaustive work-rate, would often be used as a retort to his lack of goals in his first season – but even they dipped after a succession of niggling injuries prevented him from ever hitting his physical peak.

By the time of Elmander’s second campaign, patience had started to wear thin. And while his manager made great odds to point out in pre-season that foreign imports often need a period of settling-in, the player’s lack of goalscoring chances was making the numbers harder to defend.

Judging by the striker’s revelations in his home country earlier this week, the pair’s relationship did not run smoothly, and by the time Megson left the Reebok in December last year, Ivan Klasnic had already usurped his position alongside Kevin Davies.

Coyle’s arrival promoted a significant shift in Elmander’s body language on the pitch – and while the goals still didn’t flow, the smile had certainly returned to his face.

There simply isn’t any questioning that the former Feyenoord and Brondby man is desperate to be the man everyone wants him to be. But the fact still remains that, of the new manager’s 23 games in charge of the club, the Swede scored just twice, and started 12 of them sat on the bench.

Both club owner Eddie Davies and Phil Gartside are sound businessmen, and they will not want to write off the investment.

In January there were rumours that German club Hamburg were interested in taking a closer look at Elmander on loan but since then, the return Wanderers could fetch on their front man will have shrank a little further.

It remains to be seen now whether the Whites will risk letting that figure run down to zero, or whether Coyle can resurrect the striker’s Premier League career against the odds.