IAN Evatt believes new signing Amadou Bakayoko might surprise a few people in League One this season.

The powerful former Coventry City man has looked sharp in pre-season training thus far and is set to make his first appearance in Saturday’s opening friendly at Longridge Town.

Bakayoko helped the Sky Blues to promotion in his last season at this level and has been signed to provide competition for Eoin Doyle up front.

Evatt has been impressed by what he has seen of his summer addition thus far.

“Baka, out of all the new players, has probably impressed me most so far,” the manager said. “His work ethic and his quality on the ball has been great. “Everyone will think ‘oh, he’s a big target man’ but he is so much more than that.”

Wanderers relied heavily on Doyle’s firepower last season, with the Irishman making 45 appearances in all competitions and playing more minutes than anyone other than Ricardo Santos.

Shaun Miller had been the back-up option in League Two – but Evatt says the tough choice to release him in the summer was down to him being too similar in style.

“In Baka, we have a different option to Eoin now,” he said.

“Eoin is brilliant at what he does. He guarantees you goals at whatever level you are playing at but sometimes you need something slightly different.

“That’s why we took the difficult decision to let Shaun go because we felt they were quite similar players. Baka is something completely different but we’re really pleased with him and I feel like we have good competition for places.”

Evatt is also happy with his options at centre-half, where new signings Will Aimson and George Johnston will rival last season’s rock-solid partnership Santos and Alex Baptiste for a place in the side.

“We have got four senior centre-backs who all have different attributes and they are different types of player but they can all handle this level and progress from this level as well. They are proven,” he said.

“We need that competition. If you look at the four centre-backs now in Rico, Alex Baptiste, George Johnston and Will Aimson and compare that to the ones we started with last season, there is a big difference there. That’s the level of quality we need.”