Matt Taylor expecting Antony Evans to stay on at Bristol Rovers after award-winning campaign

Matt Taylor expects Antony Evans to be at Bristol Rovers next season on the back of an excellent campaign which earned the midfielder Bristol Rovers' Player of the Season award.

The 25-year-old has been vital for the Gas this term, making the most appearances (51) and playing the most minutes of any player (3,908) while also providing the most goal contributions with 19 across all competitions, 10 goals and nine assists.

In what has been an injury-hit campaign for Rovers as a collective, Evans' only absences have been down to suspensions for reaching yellow card thresholds and has started every match since February 24. In those 11 games, the midfielder has worn the captain's armband six times when Sam Finley has been absent with the skipper missing the past five matches and expected to depart this summer.

Asked about the 25-year-old's future, Taylor stated: "We expect Antony to be here next season. Congratulations to him on a fantastic season. Fully deserved in terms of winning those awards. He's been our stand out player.

"We had a conversation the other day, it's interesting because I don't think he started the season consistently in terms of game time so he's gotten stronger and stronger and we've probably worn him down. He's played so much, through a pain barrier at times. He's played through the odd injury.

"He's been a stalwart for myself and for the football club and the recognition he got in terms of awards, I would have liked more for him. I'd like his last two pens to go in and get to that double figure mark in terms of his goal return and more individual accolades because his effort certainly warrants that but we're looking forward to working with him next season and building a strong team around him."

Assuming that Evans is still a Rovers player come the start of the season, he will be entering the final 12 months of his contract which was the same situation that Aaron Collins would have faced had the Gas not sold the forward to Bolton Wanderers back in January. Collins was named last season's League One Player of the Season and the expectation was that there would be a fair bit of outside interest in the Welshman over the course of last summer but that surprisingly never proved to be the case before Bolton came in in January and Rovers opted to cash in while the forward was struggling for form.

Naturally, the hope will be that Evans extends his terms at the football club but currently there is no indication of that happening in the immediate future and it's no secret that the 25-year-old has established himself as one of League One's best midfielders which could well attract outside interest. Whether or not there will be is yet to be seen but Evans is still undoubtedly one of the Gas' most valuable assets and the more current deal goes down in length, the more necessary it will be for a conversation to be had regarding whether Rovers opt to cash in or get another season out of the playmaker before allowing him to depart for free next year.

Elsewhere, Taylor also confirmed that the Gas' retained list is expected to be released on Tuesday which will confirm which players will be staying on and who will be departing. With six loanees and eight first team players set to be out of contract this summer, a major overhaul of the squad over the course of this summer window has been expected for months now but the Rovers manager has previously made the point that too much change is unsustainable and therefore you would certainly expect there to be an effort to get Evans to extend his current terms to avoid seeing their most influential player and most-likely candidate to be named club captain on the back of Finley's expected departure leave as well.

"Well not immediately," Taylor declared when asked if he gets time off after this weekend's final game at Wigan Athletic and what the next couple of weeks look like. "I'm in all next week. Meetings, discussions. The retained list will probably go out close of play Tuesday or Tuesday afternoon and then planning for the start of pre-season which has already gone into play in terms of schedule but then what's in that daily work in terms of a football perspective. The S&C and medical guys will take a big responsibility in terms of the fitness side of it and the gym work on top of that but from a footballing aspect, just what detail we want to get to.

"But then the overlying, underlying, the middle is still recruitment because you know what's going out the door, what's coming in is going to be so, so important."